Suspect
by Disco Ant
Summary: -Completed- -New version- When Zenigata's daughter gets kidnapped he finds that it is up to him to get her back. Contains language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

Wow, I finally got around to rewriting this story. Amazing... With the original version I had tried something new and didn't like it, plus had no idea where the story was going and found it sort of went everywhere when I reread it.  
>I have no idea where this version is going, either, but so far my notes seem to make sense. xD This story is similar in many ways to the last version, but it's more wordier and thorough, I guess?<br>Hopefully those who read the last version will enjoy this new one. And, like my other stuff, this will most likely be slow in updating. :(

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><p><strong>Suspect<strong>

by Disco Ant

Chapter One

The final bell of the day rang, the students happily gathering their books and papers, placing them into their backpacks before leaving class.

The hallways were filled with various conversations, students making plans for the weekend, the last one they had before finals week.

Pushing her way past the crowds was a girl who looked too young to be among the other college kids. "Toshiko," she called out, squeezing through the traffic and waving to her friend as she ran towards her.

"Ayame," Toshiko smiled, stopping and waiting for her friend to join her.

The two girls looked alike, both with small curved figures and straight black hair that stopped just past their shoulders. Ayame, though, was seven inches shorter than her friend and preferred to wear more colorful and feminine clothing.

"We're going to that club tonight, right?" Ayame asked when she finally caught up to Toshiko.

Toshiko gave her a confused look. "No... Didn't you get my text? I have to go to the station so I can work on my paper."

Ayame whined and slumped her shoulders.

Toshiko grinned. "There's always tomorrow night," she consoled her.

"Why do you have to go to the station anyway?" Ayame pouted. "They never let you bring anyone inside."

Toshiko shrugged. "My dad asked his Captain and he said it was okay. Besides, it's not like anything interesting goes on there. It's mainly just a bunch of creepy guys staring at me and asking if I need anything."

"Yeah," Ayame sighed.

"Look, Ayame," Toshiko said as she turned and stepped in front of her friend. "If I want to get into that law school I need to do this paper. It isn't like I want to leave you or anything. I have to do this. And it has to be good or else they won't even read the whole thing and I'll never be considered for acceptance."

"Can't your dad help with that?" Ayame muttered as she glared at Toshiko.

Toshiko brought her head back, staring offended at Ayame. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Ayame glared. "Have fun with your paper," she said, irritated, before stomping off.

"Ayame," Toshiko said in disappointment, deciding not to do anything as her friend got lost in the crowd.

She shook her head and sighed, turning and walking down the hall towards the side door, the closest exit to get to her car.

...

"Hey, Toshiko," the officer at the front desk said when she entered, flashing her a big smile.

"Hey," she said, forcing herself to somewhat smile at the man. "Officer Sato," she quickly said, not wanting to show disrespect to the son of her father's Captain.

"You've been coming here an awful lot," Officer Sato said as he handed her the sign in sheet.

"Yeah, well, finals are next week and I have to have my paper in by Wednesday at the latest."

"Ah. What's the paper about?"

She signed her name and wrote in the time before sliding the paper back to the officer. "Captain Abe," she said.

"Hey, really?" Officer Sato said in excitement. "Did you know he's my great great great great great Uncle?"

"No," Toshiko said slowly and with a forced laugh. "That's... that's interesting. I bet you have a lot of stories, then, huh?"

Officer Sato laughed. "Not really. I never knew him."

She gave him an unsure look, the man speaking as if he would have ever had the possibility of knowing a man who died over two hundred years ago. "Well, that's too bad," she said sincerely before quickly rushing off and through the door to the main office.

The office was a large and open space, two stories high and three thousand square feet. The room contained all of the desks for the officers working there as well as a partitioned area for bookshelves, file cabinets and computers.

As she walked towards the computer area she got numerous shouts of "Hello" and "Hey, Toshiko" and even one request for her to call someone if she didn't have plans. She kept her head down, not wanting to see who it was wanting to go out with her.

'Lucky for him my dad isn't here,' she thought, knowing that if he were the officer would find himself on the floor with his face being beaten in.

"Kind of wish he was here..." she said under her breath as she found an open computer and sat down, placing her backpack on the floor beside her.

Captain Sato had told her that her dad was over in Europe, close on the trail of Lupin and ready to arrest him and drag him back to Japan where he could be put on trial for his crimes.

Toshiko was smarter than that, though. She knew her dad would never catch Lupin, but that he would never stop trying to do so. Because of this she hated Lupin. She felt that if the man had any compassion for others that he would let himself be arrested so her dad could at least take life easy for once.

One of her earliest memories was of her dad talking about a thief named Lupin the Third. The excitement she saw on her dad's face as he spoke about arresting him made her happy. That happiness faded as the years went by, though, as her dad got older, yet still continued after the thief who was just entering the prime of his life.

But now? Now it was just ridiculous.

Her dad could care less about his age or his health. And Lupin was still many years younger and had skilled partners who would do anything for him. Her dad kept going, though, every failure making him just that much more obsessed with the case.

"And less aware his family even exists," she mumbled angrily as she stared at the computer screen.

She glanced over, noticing she was being stared at by the officer sitting two computers down. She forced a smile and quickly looked back at the screen.

To make herself look busy she pulled out her laptop and started a new document, typing random things while waiting for the room to clear.

'I guess he is still aware,' she thought with a sigh, staring blankly at her laptop while continually pressing the 'a' key over and over mindlessly.

He still called her when he could, which wasn't often, but at least he made time for it. And although their conversations mainly consisted of awkward questions and silence, Toshiko enjoyed them.

It was during one of those calls that she had the opportunity to ask if she could have access to the archives on Captain Abe, lying about how she was doing her final report on him and could really use the information so she could get a passing grade.

Her dad was more than happy to ask Captain Sato, who was more than happy to allow her to look into the archived files.

She knew it was wrong, but she knew she'd never get a passing grade and impress the professors at the law school with a paper about a guy who was only famous for having the police station named after him.

She glanced over as the officer besides her left, leaving her alone in the area. And with the shift ending it left her in an almost empty police station. "Finally," she sighed, digging in her backpack and pulling out a firewire cable and a small device.

She connected the device into her laptop, connecting one end of the cable to the other end of the device and connecting the other end of the cable into the back of the computer she was using. Taking a quick glance around her she turned on the device.

"Come on," she muttered impatiently, the small screen that popped up on her laptop quickly scanning through various codes. She smiled when one of the codes stopped, the words "Access Denied" replaced by "Access Granted" before the window closed.

Every file from the main Tokyo Police Station was open to her, but she was only interested in one: the file on the gang known as the Forty Sevens.

The gang still existed, although now with a larger network of smaller gangs, each with their own name and unique way of dealing with their enemies.

It was the gang that her grandfather had gone after. And Toshiko believed it was also the gang that had killed him.

Her father never pursued the cause of death, though. Nobody did. Everyone assumed it was the Forty Sevens and, fearing for their lives, everyone forgot the incident had ever happened.

Toshiko couldn't handle it, though, ever since she found the small worn diary of the man she never knew tucked away in a box she had found in the small attic of her parent's house.

She read it cover to cover while sitting in the small dusty space, the flashlight gripped in her sweating hand as the world around her faded, replaced with the world her grandfather had lived in.

He had begun his pursuit after his partner and best friend was killed off duty, quickly figuring out it was this new gang that had just popped up in Tokyo.

The Forty Seven gang had begun in China, but quickly spread to Vietnam and the Koreas, taking over neighborhoods, towns and villages. They protected those who gave them shelter, but killed those who looked at them the wrong way. When they came to Japan it was no different.

Her grandfather's partner had been killed because, as a witness stated, he had refused to give a member of the gang a cigarette. When he left the bar the man and two others quickly surrounded and knifed him to death. When his body was discovered everything was on him except for his cigarettes.

Her grandfather only wanted justice, ignoring those around him who told him to let it go, to forget what had happened and who they believed had done it. In his diary he had written that he couldn't forget, and that as long as the sad faces of his friend's wife and children were still etched in his memory he would seek justice for the man's meaningless death.

And so, for her final paper, Toshiko was going to prove that the Forty Sevens were behind her grandfather's murder. She didn't care about the consequences, even though she knew it was something she should care about. She only wanted to, as her grandfather had written, seek justice for a meaningless death.

"How are you doing in here?"

Toshiko gasped as she turned towards the voice. "Officer Sato," she said with a nervous laugh, quickly closing her laptop and turning off the screen in front of her, hoping he didn't notice the small window showing that files were being transferred.

"Did I startle you? I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's okay. I was just... I was just finishing up here." She forced a smile, trying to act natural and not doing a very good job at it.

"Oh. Well..." Officer Sato looked down nervously. "My shift is just ending and I was, uh... I was just wondering if... Do you want to go grab something to eat?" he forced out of his mouth.

Toshiko glanced at the black screen, wondering how much longer she had until the set of files would be finished transferring. "Sure," she said happily, hoping this time her act wasn't too obvious. "Let me just get my stuff together and get ready. I'll meet you out by your car."

Officer Sato smiled, unable to believe she accepted his offer. "Sure. I'll meet you outside, then." He pointed with his thumb behind his shoulder and stood there for a second before realizing that he had to clock out. Giving her a sheepish grin he quickly left.

"Oh god," she groaned, telling herself it was just one meal and that she could leave early saying she was tired from school. Satisfied with that plan she turned the screen back on, seeing the transfer was complete.

"Three more folders to go," she said, the complete archive on the Forty Sevens having been twelve folders, the previous eight she had gotten almost having enough information for her to prove her case.

She unplugged the cable and shut the computer down, tossing all of her items in her backpack and leaving the area.

...

Her dinner with Officer Sato wasn't as awful as she thought it'd be. It was still awkward and uneventful and, just as she guessed, he acted like an idiot.

'Ugh, why do guys do that around girls they like?' she wondered as Officer Sato stuttered and stumbled through some boring story from his days at the academy.

As he told his story she smiled politely and forced herself to laugh at the points he laughed at, figuring it was something she was expected to do even though she found nothing funny about what she was trying hard not to pay attention to.

He was mid-sentance when she yawned. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" He quickly stood, not knowing really what to do. "I'm keeping you awake!" He acted as though he were panicked, like he had broken some dinner "date" rule that was obviously not supposed to be broken.

"It's fine," Toshiko said politely. "I just had a long day at school."

"Well, let me drive you home, then," he offered.

She stared at him with a confused glare. "I... I drove myself here, remember?" she said slowly.

"Oh," he said, feeling as though he had completely failed and his face showing it, as well.

"I had a good time," she lied with a smile. "Thank you for dinner." Her words were followed by an awkward hug.

Officer Sato smiled dreamily as he inhaled the smell of her hair, caught up in the moment and wrapping his arms around her.

She grunted as he squeezed her in almost a bear hug.

Officer Sato didn't notice, floating on a cloud as he let go and stepped away from her, staring at her with a loving smile.

"Yeah..." Toshiko smiled nervously. "Um, thanks again, I guess." She stared at him for a couple of seconds before turning and walking off.

"At least I got dinner out of it," she said as she stepped inside of her car. "I guess he isn't that bad of a guy, but... yeesh, what is with him?"

She thought about his behavior and had a good laugh as she got closer to her school, the building her dorm was in sitting right beside it.

She parked her car in the underground garage and took the elevator up to the fourth floor. The place was oddly quiet, making her wonder what time it really was.

She dug through her pocket for her phone and stared at it as she walked, seeing that it was almost midnight.

"How can that be?" she wondered, getting to her room and moving her hand forward to place the key in the lock when the door swung open slightly.

She looked up at the open door, the lights in the room on. "Ayame?" she asked, her friend being her roommate. "Are you...?"

She stepped inside and gasped, the room a complete mess as drawers and bookshelves were emptied onto the floor.

"Oh no," she said as she begun to panic, seeing the bloodstains on the floor and the bullet holes in the wall. "Oh no," she cried, turning to run out of the room.

She was almost to the door when she was grabbed from behind. Fighting with the person, she was able to get herself freed. She turned her head, getting a quick glimpse of a man in dark clothing before she was grabbed again and shoved into the wall.

The man cupped the back of her head in his hand and pushed forward violently, slamming her into the door jamb and knocking her out.

He let go and watched as her body fell to the floor. Standing over her, he glared down as the blood trickled from the gash in her forehead.

He reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone, calling a number. "It's done," he said. "Where do I take her?"

Getting what he needed he pocketed the phone. He stepped forward, bending down and picking her up, carrying her out the door and to the elevator.


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter goes everywhere. And it all could have been told in less than a thousand words. xD

I keep forgetting today is Halloween. Was never much into this day. I hated going to strangers doors and having them staring at me and paying attention to me just for some candy. And I never once ate all of my candy. And then idiots would go to school with theirs. "Oh my god, look at all the candy I got!" like they were the only ones special enough to get candy. -rolls eyes- Only good thing about Halloween is the awesome ghost stuff they have on TV.

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><p><span>Chapter Two<span>

Lupin, a large suitcase in each hand and a cream filled pastry shoved in his mouth, kicked open the door to the hotel suite he had reserved for that weekend.

He looked back at Fujiko and Goemon, saying something neither could decipher.

The two only stared at him as he walked inside and set the suitcases down.

Lupin took a large bite of the pastry and began to tell the two something else.

"Ugh, here," Fujiko said, handing him his cop of coffee that she had been holding for him. "Wash the food down and then talk."

Lupin took the cup and gulped down half of it.

"Okay, now what were you saying?" Fujiko asked as she looked the place over.

"Did Jigen say when he was gonna be here?" Lupin asked, opening the curtains and staring out the window, down at the streets of London.

"Not that I know of," Fujiko shrugged. "Goemon?"

Goemon shook his head. "He never said."

"Oh well," Lupin grinned. "I guess we'll have to start without him, then."

"Is that wise?" Goemon wondered.

"He was the one who had to go to Tokyo," Lupin said. "Besides, he can catch up."

"Can we do this later," Fujiko sighed as Lupin got everything prepared to go over their next job. "After that long flight I just want to relax in a nice hot bath."

"Can I join you?" Lupin asked flirtingly.

"Of course you can't," Fujiko grinned.

Lupin smiled and let out a sigh, his eyes staring longingly at her butt as she walked off.

Goemon glanced at him in disgust before walking off and finding a nice place on the floor to sit and meditate.

Alone and bored, Lupin pulled out his laptop and began to waste his hours away on the internet.

...

Midnight had come and gone, not much happening since their arrival in London.

Lupin took the two out to dinner, which was good but low on conversation. When they returned he once again tried to go over their plans, but Fujiko said she was too tired and went to bed.

Goemon had returned to his spot and resumed his meditations.

Without Jigen there to pal around with and bored of the internet Lupin looked for other ways to entertain himself.

He stood on the balcony and leaned on the railing, staring down at the entrance of the hotel across the street as he lit up another cigarette.

His mood lightened when his phone rang, quickly grabbing it out of his jacket pocket and answering it.

"Jigen," he said happily.

"Lupin," he returned, mocking Lupin's upbeat tone. "Hey, I'm on my way to the airport now, so I'll be there in twelve, thirteen hours."

"Okay." Lupin grinned as cop cars swarmed across the street. "He's early," he said as he glanced at his watch.

"Who is?" Jigen wondered.

"Zenigata. I called in a tip that a suspicious man in a red jacket was staying in a room on the top floor of the hotel across the street." Lupin laughed. "I can hear him screaming from here."

"Fujiko ignoring you again?" Jigen grinned.

"Yeah," Lupin sighed. He stared at the building in silence. "I hope the elevator was too slow for him and that he's now running up all those stairs to get to the sixty fifth floor," he giggled.

"Geez, you're gonna give the guy a heart attack."

"I can only hope," Lupin said with a smile. "Oh, don't worry about being behind on the job. I can't even get anyone interested in it. Fujiko and Goemon scatter like roaches the second I bring it up," he said, glaring off.

Jigen laughed. "Well, at least when the time comes you can rely on them to be as predictable as ever."

Lupin grinned, something on the street getting his attention. "Man, they're leaving already?" he said, watching as the cop cars sped off. "I guess he took the elevator," he sighed in disappointment. "So, what were you doing in Tokyo? You left so quickly..."

"It was nothing. Just an old friend needing a favor."

"Oh." Lupin stared off. "Anyone I know?"

Almost ten seconds of awkward silence followed, Lupin wondering if the connection had been lost.

"Jigen? You still there?"

"Yeah," Jigen sighed in annoyance.

"You can just say you don't want to talk about it instead of getting all pissed off."

"Do I pry into your life?" Jigen asked.

"No, but that's-"

"Then don't pry into mine, okay?" Jigen said loudly.

"I was just asking a question! Geez, what the hell, man? Just say you don't want to answer and I'll fucking drop it!"

"I don't want to answer!"

"Fine! Now we can change the damn subject!"

"Good!"

Lupin stared off, his glare slowly becoming a big grin. "So, what are you wearing?" he asked in a sexy feminine voice.

Jigen was silent, confused by the question, but laughing in the end. "You are so fucked up, you know that?"

"I know," Lupin laughed. "Just get your ass here before I take fifty percent of your cut."

"Oh? Fujiko isn't planning on stealing it all?"

Lupin groaned and rolled his eyes. "Just get here."

"Yeah yeah," Jigen sighed, ending the call.

Lupin grinned and placed the phone back in his pocket, staring off into the distance. "I wonder if Fujiko's asleep," he thought with an impish look on his face.

...

Late in the morning as students were waking up from their drunken slumbers and wandering the halls was the aftermath of the previous nights break in noticed.

A few students had gathered in front of the ransacked room, murmuring about the mess and the blood and not to touch anything.

The police were quickly called, two cars dispatched to the scene.

The detectives searched the place for clues while the policemen questioned the students who had come across the scene.

One of the detectives, wearing a long black coat over his dark gray suit and his short black hair slicked back, approached one of the officers as he finished up taking notes from the last witness.

"Anything?" he asked the officer.

"Detective Haijura," the officer said as he looked up. "So far we have one person who said they thought they heard a scream, but there were a few parties going on and so she didn't think anything of it."

"Around what time?"

"She thinks it was around ten thirty."

"Is that all?"

The officer looked down at his notes and nodded.

"Tch, useless kids," Haijura muttered as he looked back at the room. "We have a few more things to be bagged before we can go back to the station and have tests run. I want this door taped off and locked and an officer posted here at all times."

"Yes, sir," the officer nodded.

They finished up what they had to do and left, one of the officers staying behind to secure the crime scene.

Back at the station Haijura and his partner went over some of the evidence they found.

"Interesting," Haijura muttered as he stared at the screen of Toshiko's laptop.

...

It was morning in London, Lupin and Goemon lazing around the hotel suite as they waited for Fujiko to get up.

"If she's still there in an hour I'm pulling her out of bed," Lupin said, annoyed as he glared off.

"It's your life," Goemon said as he sat cross-legged on the floor, his eyes closed.

Lupin mumbled something as he flopped down on the couch, laying on his back and staring at the ceiling. "Hey, Goemon."

"Yeah?"

"Did you think Jigen was acting weird at the airport?"

"A little. I figured he was in a hurry."

"Well, yeah, he was, obviously." Lupin rolled his eyes. Goemon always seemed to see everything, but miss the point every time.

"How was he acting weird?" Goemon wondered.

Lupin sighed. He really didn't know. It was more of a feeling he had that something else was going on. "He just was," was the best answer he could think of at the moment.

Goemon opened his eyes and glanced at the couch, unable to see Lupin on it from where he sat. "He has many secrets," he said as he closed his eyes.

"Yeah, we all do. But that isn't it."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't know," Lupin said in frustration. "It's just... I just felt something. Like something wasn't right. I can't explain it."

"I think you just did."

Lupin gave a low growl. Goemon was the worst person to have a conversation with. He wondered if talking to a sleeping Fujiko would get him farther. 'This couch and I could probably discover cures for diseases...'

"The answer to your problem," Goemon began to say, "is to find out what your feelings mean. Go with what your senses tell you."

"And they tell me that Jigen was acting weird," Lupin said, feeling as though he had taken a huge leap backwards instead of getting closer to figuring out what was bothering him. "But that doesn't tell me anything!"

"And why does this bother you?"

"God, Goemon," Lupin groaned, feeling a migraine coming on. "How do you do it? How do you go through life like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like... like you!"

Goemon gave no answer.

Lupin sighed and sat up, looking over at Goemon. "What I mean is that you seem to have everything together, but not, at the same time. You understand?"

"No."

"You're so... so innocent," Lupin said, figuring that to be the best and least offensive word he could use.

"My soul is not," Goemon said simply.

Lupin's jaw tightened. He wondered why he bothered to be nice, Goemon so dense that he probably wouldn't catch insults being lobbed at him anyway.

He looked over as Fujiko came out of her room. "Thank god," he sighed, jumping to his feet and walking towards her. He stood in front of her and gave her a big hug.

"Lupin? What are you doing?" she wondered, not amused by his sudden action.

"Mmm, just happy to see you," he sighed happily.

Fujiko rolled her eyes. "Trying to have a conversation with Goemon, again, I see."

Lupin smiled as he continued to hold onto her.


	3. Chapter 3

This chapter changed a bit from what it used to be. Now instead of the short dream sequence there is a past story sequence.

And no accents on the name, as I can't remember which letters they go over and which directions the accents slant. And I'm much too lazy to look. xD

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><p><span>Chapter Three<span>

Zenigata dragged his feet down the hallway and to the door of his hotel room. He yawned and fumbled with the key, half open eyes staring with blurred vision at the doorknob as he finally got the key placed into the lock.

He shuffled inside and slammed the door behind him, able to get one thought out before he collapsed on the bed.

"I know it was Lupin," he mumbled. "I know..."

He fell into a deep sleep as his body hit the mattress.

That whole night and morning was nothing but calls from people with tips, all claiming they saw Lupin or someone who resembled him. Some called to say Lupin stole their jewelry or their silver.

Zenigata checked out every claim, no matter how ridiculous they seemed. This was Lupin he was after, a man not known for doing things the sane and normal way.

Although, to Zenigata, the more bizarre the claims were, the more he thought he had found his man.

He was proven wrong with every visit, though. Lupin wasn't there. And he was sure that he never was, the people either too scared to think straight or Lupin himself having made the calls.

He figured it was all Lupin, liking to think that people weren't that stupid, yet proven wrong on that theory many times before, as well.

There were times he regretted even getting involved with the thief, but those times were few and far between.

Before he had heard the name Lupin, his job was boring. Routine traffic stops and a handful of drug busts weren't enough to excite him. He was thrilled when there was a murder, even though he knew he shouldn't have been. It was all he had to look forward to, though.

And then came the sudden string of art thefts.

It was no coincidence to anyone who had heard of the name Lupin that the art was once in the collection of Arsene Lupin I and had been sought after by Arsene Lupin II.

Lupin II having been dead for going on five years, they knew that Lupin III had taken over the Lupin empire.

Zenigata had heard of the name Lupin before, but that was only by glancing at articles of thefts that had taken place in Europe.

Europe wasn't in his jurisdiction, so he didn't care. And even if he did care, there would have been nothing he could have done about the crimes.

But now that the thefts were taking place in his own country, he could do something about it.

If he were put on the case, that was.

He volunteered, but his captain knew of more skilled officers to assign to the robbery case, and so Zenigata continued to be stuck with the boring jobs.

He clocked out one night and was on his way home when he stopped at a light. He glanced over at an apartment building in the rich part of town, a feeling he couldn't explain coming over him.

Something was wrong and he had to find out what.

With no traffic in sight, he sped through the light and down the empty streets until he got to the front of the building. Parking his car, he stepped out and cautiously walked around to the back of it.

He stared up at the fifth floor apartments when he heard a crash and a scream. He scrambled to the front of the building and ran inside, taking the stairs to the fifth floor and stopping, glancing up the stairwell and continuing on to the roof.

He opened the door and glanced around, sneaking out and crouching behind a large air conditioning unit. Peeking around the unit he spotted a man dressed in black, crouched down and fumbling with something.

"Don't move," Zenigata had ordered as he stepped out and faced the man, who froze at the sound of Zenigata's voice. "Stand up and turn around," Zenigata ordered. "Slowly!"

The man did as he was told, turning around and staring at Zenigata.

Although the man wasn't a man at all.

Zenigata was shocked to see the suspect before him looked to be in his mid-teens, maybe a little older, his dark hair a few inches long and not styled, his face clean shaven, if he was even old enough to grow facial hair, yet.

"So, you have me," the boy said with a cocky smile. "What are you gonna do now, old man?"

Zenigata glared at the boy. How dare he call him old. He was far from being even middle aged.

"You don't look like a cop," the boy laughed. He quickly reached inside of the jacket he wore and pulled out a gun, pointing it at Zenigata.

Zenigata froze. He was there alone with no weapon of his own. And even if he did have his gun, he doubted he could have used it on a kid, even if that kid had called him old.

"Turn around," the boy ordered.

Zenigata didn't.

"I'll be nice," the boy assured him. "Just turn around and let me escape and I promise I won't shoot you."

Zenigata slowly turned around, getting a feeling about the boy.

"Lupin's always keep their promises," the boy said as he holstered his gun. "At least I do."

"Lupin," Zenigata said, shocked by the possibility that the boy could be the Lupin III he had heard about.

"See you later, old man," Lupin shouted as he jumped off the roof, his haul strapped to his back.

Zenigata spun around and ran to the edge of the roof, the boy floating through the air on a hang glider.

His hands formed into tight fists as he watched the boy disappear into the darkness. Not only had this Lupin kid pulled a gun on him, he called him an old man.

"One of these days, Lupin," Zenigata said as he stood on the roof, "I'll be hauling your ass off to jail. And then you could sit in a cell and rot for all I care."

After that chance encounter, Zenigata disobeyed many orders to go after Lupin. Sick of his disobedience, his captain put in a transfer for him to Interpol, where a case on the Lupin family was already built up.

Interpol accepted him and granted his wishes to put him on the Lupin case, nobody else crazy enough to even try catching the thief.

In Zenigata they saw dedication they had never seen before. They figured if there was anyone to finally close the years long case, it was him.

Zenigata was thrilled. Along with his new goal in life came a big raise, money he didn't have before to help provide for his family.

The money didn't replace him, though, as he flew around the world and hunted down Lupin. He and his wife grew distant and his daughter grew up without him. When he thought about the sacrifices he was making it pained him. But it was what he wanted to do, it was the job he had always dreamed of, and it filled him with guilt knowing it was ultimately what made him happy.

His wife had seen for some time, before he was accepted by Interpol, that Zenigata loved his job more than he loved her. The two separated on good terms, as he still cared about her and she still loved him. It was his job that she really hated.

Toshiko grew up seeing and talking to her dad on occasion, reading all she could of his adventures to arrest Lupin in the papers.

He tried to make an effort to visit more, but Lupin never slept, and so he didn't, either.

Everyone sacrificed for him and he sacrificed for Lupin. Lupin only lived for himself, however, so he didn't care what pain he had caused others, as long as he was happy and got what he wanted.

"It's always Lupin..." Zenigata mumbled, half asleep as his ringing phone woke him up.

He fumbled around in his pockets to find where he had put his phone, his frustrations growing until he finally found it and answered, shutting the obnoxious ring tone up.

"Zenigata," he answered, sitting up and rubbing his eyes with his left hand.

"Inspector, this is Detective Haijura."

"Yeah," Zenigata said through a yawn.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news," Haijura said.

"Bad news?" Zenigata wondered.

"It's about your daughter, Toshiko. She's been kidnapped."

Zenigata stared off, slowly lowering his hand as he ended the call. Panicked, he shot to his feet and raced out the door.

"Inspector?" Haijura said to a dead line. "Hmm, that went well..." He looked over at his partner and shrugged.

His partner hung up the phone at his desk and scribbled something down. "The girl's mother is on her way here now. Should be here in an hour or so."

"Call me when she gets here. I'm going down to see if forensics has anything yet."

The partner nodded and picked up the phone receiver, calling another number as Haijura walked off.


	4. Chapter 4

Oh, that crazy banter. Gotta love it. Or not. Whatever.

These chapters keep getting shorter. xD I have a lot set to happen next chapter, so unless I go crazy and break it up, chapter five will be a lot longer.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Four<span>

Lupin stared down at his cards in frustration, his eyes glancing up at Fujiko as she sat across from him before they looked back down at the awful hand he held.

"So?" Fujiko asked with a smirk.

Lupin grumbled as he sat in his boxers, his other clothes discarded as he was losing horribly in he and Fujiko's game a strip poker.

Fujiko lost once and she took off her shoes, the two then having a long argument on whether or not shoes were an item of clothing.

Fujiko won that argument, as well as the following four games.

"Are you ready to admit you lost?" she laughed.

"No," Lupin said with a grin as he threw his cards down, diving from a sit as he jumped out of his boxers and soared towards Fujiko.

Fujiko grinned as she rolled off to the side, Lupin impaling himself onto the floor, writhing in pain as he grabbed his crotch.

"Hmph," Fujiko said as she got to her feet and walked off.

She took four steps when the door opened, Jigen stepping inside of the room and stopping, his eyes staring down at Lupin as he roll around naked on the floor.

"Do I want to know?" he asked under his breath, deciding he didn't and walking on past his friend.

"About time you got here," Fujiko huffed.

Lupin groaned in desperation, reaching a shaking hand out at Jigen's legs as he walked by.

"I'm not helping you, Lupin," he said as he entered the kitchen area and grabbed some beer from the fridge.

"Tch, fine," Lupin said, dropping the act as he wasn't getting any sympathy from anyone. He stood and started putting his clothes back on.

"She cheat or did you let her win?" Jigen asked.

"A little of both," Lupin grinned. "I know she can't get enough of my body." He gave her a flirtatious look.

"Oh, please, like your body is even that great," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"What? And what's so wrong with my body?"

"You're too hairy."

"I am not too hairy!" he whined angrily.

"And your muscle mass is zero."

"I have muscles! Tell her I have muscles, Jigen!"

"I'm staying out of this," Jigen said as he sat at the table.

"Oh," Fujiko said, as she thought of something else that was flawed.

Jigen sat quietly, his mind somewhere else as he drank his beer.

Lupin and Fujiko continued yelling at each other.

Ten minutes later Goemon walked into the room, his eye twitching as he glanced from Lupin to Fujiko. He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. Their continuous arguing wasn't allowing him, though.

"Shut up!" he finally yelled.

Lupin and Fujiko stopped and stared at him, both backing off as he took a step towards them.

"You didn't stop them?" Goemon asked Jigen as he sat across from him.

Jigen only shrugged, finishing off his beer and setting the can down in front of him.

Fujiko took one of the seats and sat, Lupin approaching cautiously as he sat down near Goemon.

"So," Lupin said as they sat quietly. "Anyone else hungry?" He smiled as he looked at the others.

"Is that all you can think about?" Fujiko groaned.

"I think about other things," Lupin said as he glared at her.

"Oh yeah, sex. Food and sex. It's a wonder you haven't gotten us all killed, yet."

Lupin stared at her in annoyance. "So, are you saying that-?"

He stopped when Goemon cleared his throat.

"Didn't we have a job to do?" Jigen wondered.

Lupin took one last angry glance at Fujiko before he stood and grabbed the papers and everything else needed to go over the plan.

...

"And why do I get the paintings?" Fujiko complained, Lupin giving everyone their assignment.

"Because I'm getting my grandpa's stuff and Jigen is grabbing that crown I want and Goemon is preparing our escape. So, that leaves you to grab the paintings."

"Can't I get the crown?" she asked as she glared at Jigen.

"No," Lupin said with a grin.

"His arms are bigger, though," she complained. "You know how hard it is to lug around paintings when you have short arms?"

Jigen laughed.

"They aren't that big," Lupin said as he measured varying sizes of squares in front of him with his hands. "They're like that small. And there's only three of them."

"I'll take the paintings," Jigen said. He looked at Fujiko and grinned. "Think your stubs can handle a small crown?"

Fujiko stood, Jigen shielding himself as she pounded her hands down at him, hitting his lifted arm as he laughed.

"So," Lupin said as he stood and clapped his hands together. "Everyone know what they're doing?"

Goemon nodded.

"Yeah," Fujiko said as she sat down in a huff.

"What time are we leaving?" Jigen asked as he grabbed a cigarette and placed it between his lips.

"The guards change their shifts at nine, so around eight thirty," Lupin said. "Now, who's hungry?" he asked with a big grin.

...

'Kidnapped...' Zenigata thought as he stared off in worry. 'Why would she be kidnapped? And who would do such a thing? And why isn't this plane going any faster?'

He growled in frustration at something he couldn't control, every minute he spent in the air just that much longer that his daughter was in peril.

"Can I get you another drink, sir?" a stewardess asked as she leaned down towards him.

"Yeah, sure," he muttered, glancing at her before staring off in annoyance at the back of the seat in front of him.

She smiled and walked off towards the back of the plane.

'Is it because of me?' he wondered. 'Someone I arrested in the past trying to get back at me?'

Guilt filled him as he thought as hard as he could about all of the men he had arrested, no one standing out other than Lupin.

'And I haven't arrested him, yet.' He let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

"Sir? Your drink."

"Huh? Oh, thanks." He took the drink and forced a smile, the stewardess smiling back and taking care of other passengers.

'Would Lupin have anything to do with... No, he would never do that. Would he?'

In all of the years he had pursued the thief, he didn't really know the levels he could stoop down to. There were the few times when he was accused of kidnapping someone. And the evidence was strong to prove that he had.

'He always denied it, though.'

Zenigata chuckled at himself, not even knowing why he would believe Lupin. For some reason he did, though.

'Should I?' he asked, unable to come up with an answer.

He looked out the window, his eyes staring at the layer of clouds the plane flew over as they got just that much closer to Japan.

'Please,' he thought as his eyes began to water and his hands started to shake. 'Be alive when I get there...'


	5. Chapter 5

Keeping a time frame is something I don't do with stories, so lets just say this whole thing works out, that Zenigata got to Japan and all that other stuff happened before night time in London. :D

Also, I went crazy and broke this chapter up, as the part I wrote wasn't going to be that long and since it was the parts following it seemed out of place.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Five<span>

The plane hadn't even stopped on the runway before Zenigata was out of his seat and walking down the aisle.

His patience was running thin as the stewardess told him to go back to his seat, that nobody would be able to leave the plane until he did.

This automatically made him the villain of the plane, the other passengers telling him to sit down and calling him not so nice things.

"Yeah, but-" he started to say, thinking that pity might get him farther than his badge did.

"Sit down," the woman ordered as she pointed to his seat.

A low growl escaped his lips, his body tense from anger. Defeated and needing to get off the plane, he turned and went back to his seat, knowing that was the only way he'd ever get to the station.

A few of the passengers clapped, Zenigata wishing he could arrest them for being smartasses, but knowing his boss would never go along with it and that he'd be punished.

The plane pulled up to the terminal, the stewardess from before making Zenigata wait until all of the others passengers had left the plane before letting him leave.

Zenigata stood and glared at the woman as she motioned that he was free to go. "My daughter was kidnapped and I'm on my way to the police station to see if they've found her. But, I guess doing your job is more important than the possibility of my daughter being dead."

The woman gasped, feeling guilty as her sorrowful eyes watched as he walked down the aisle.

...

"Why is she in there?" Zenigata asked, standing in a small plain room and watching through the glass as his ex-wife was being questioned, the third time she had gone through this since her arrival at the station.

She was wearing one of the outfits she usually wore at work, feeling it best to make herself presentable in public, even though her looks were the last thing on her mind.

'Her hair is a mess,' Zenigata thought sadly, the woman's hair quickly tied up in a bun. 'And her hands...' He watched as she fidgeted in the chair, her shaking hands clasped tightly together.

"I don't like this," he muttered.

"You know the drill," Captain Sato sighed as he stood next to Zenigata.

"She isn't a criminal," Zenigata said, his voice raised as he turned and glared at his captain. "This is what suspects go through, not the family of the victim!"

"In most cases the family are the suspects."

Zenigata stared at his captain in shock.

"Look, Zenigata, I've known you and your family for a long time. Of course I don't think either of you had anything to do with this, but it's what we have to do, to eliminate some of the "suspects". You've done this to many families yourself. You should understand."

"Get her out of there," Zenigata ordered.

"Not until she-"

"I said..." Zenigata turned and grabbed Captain Sato by the front of his jacket, pushing him against the wall and getting into his face. "Get her out of there!"

Two officers ran up to aid the captain, Zenigata glancing at them and letting the man go.

The two men stared at each other before Zenigata stormed out of the room.

"It's fine," Captain Sato said to the two officers as they looked at him on what to do. "He's under a lot of stress," he sighed as he straightened his jacket and left the room.

He walked down the hall and approached Zenigata, who was sitting hunched over in a chair as he stared at the floor between his feet.

"We'll find her," Captain Sato said as he took a seat next to Zenigata. "Alive."

Zenigata said nothing.

"You know, my son went through the same thing your wife is going through right now, questioned as if he was some low-life criminal."

Zenigata raised his head and looked at the captain. "Why would they accuse your son?" he wondered, Officer Sato more of a bumbling idiot than a kidnapper.

"He took your daughter out to dinner the night she went missing."

"He what?" Zenigata wasn't amused by what he heard. What was his daughter thinking?

"Oh, don't worry, Zenigata," Captain Sato laughed. "It was just a friendly gesture on my sons part."

"Hmm."

"Koichi," a woman said, as if shocked to see him.

Zenigata looked up at the woman as she walked quickly towards him.

"Aya," he said, standing and slowly embracing her as she hugged him tightly.

"Do... do you know...?"

"They haven't talked to me, yet," he told her. "Did they tell you anything?"

She nodded, but didn't say what she was told.

"When I'm finished here we can discuss this," he said as he placed his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes. "They'll find her," he said, trying to convince his ex of something even he wasn't sure of at that point.

She nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes as she looked back at the man approaching.

"Inspector Zenigata," the man said with a small bow. "I'm Detective Haijura. I'm leading the case involving your daughter."

Zenigata nodded.

"Please, come with me, if you will."

Zenigata looked at his wife. "It's gonna be okay," he said, forcing a smile and then turning and following Haijura.

He was taken to a room like his ex-wife had been in, only this one was bigger and had two cameras placed on the ceiling.

"Take a seat, please," Haijura said, motioning towards the chair on the other side of the table.

Zenigata sat, Haijura sitting right after, the two men staring across the table at each other.

"When was the last time you spoke to your daughter, Inspector?"

"Two weeks ago," Zenigata answered, annoyed as he wanted to know all of the details instead of going through the basic questions.

"Did she act strange in any way? Did it seems like she was bothered by something?"

"No, she just told me how school was going. Why?"

"She had asked to use police computers," Haijura stated, ignoring Zenigata's question. "And you were fine with that?"

"She said she was doing a report on Captain Abe. I felt there was nothing wrong with the request. Captain Sato didn't, either."

Haijura rifled through some papers and tossed a small stack of them on the table in front of Zenigata. "Does that look like a report on Captain Abe?" he asked as he stared seriously at Zenigata.

Zenigata looked down at the papers, shocked when he saw the name "Forty Sevens" mentioned several times on the top sheet of paper.

"Were you aware she hacked into the main database?" Haijura asked.

Zenigata looked up from the papers and slowly shook his head.

"Well, she did. Took the files from the years long Forty Sevens case." Haijura took out Toshiko's laptop and opened the screen to show Zenigata the multiple files she had taken. "Almost got them all, too."

Zenigata was too shocked and angry to respond. Why had his daughter done that, to use him and the captain in that way, to lie to her family about what she was doing, to think that researching something like that wouldn't put her in harm? None of it made sense.

"So, now that you are aware of what we're dealing with..." Haijura grabbed a file and opened it. "Several blood samples were taken from the scene. We thought that one would be of the roommates, but it was of someone not on any database. Blood on the door jamb was that of your daughter's. And two different blood types were found in the bathroom, but those are still being tested."

"Where's her roommate?" Zenigata asked as he glared down at the table.

"We don't know."

Zenigata closed his eyes and sighed as anger filled him. 'Damn it, Toshiko. Why would you do this?'

"We pulled some bullets from the walls and found a single casing under the dresser with a partial print."

"Whose?"

"It's still being run through the database at this time." Haijura closed the file and gave Zenigata serious glare. "This case isn't going to be easy. The Forty Sevens branched out into hundreds of groups. Half of them are unknown and the other half, good luck trying to get anyone to go after them."

"I'll do it," Zenigata said, glaring at Haijura.

"You know you can't be involved with this case. Even if you you were and captured the ones responsible the courts would just throw it out. And then you'd either be killed or have to spend the rest of your life in hiding."

"I don't care."

"Yeah, well, we care. Besides, we don't even know everything yet. And until we get the results back from the lab, we won't know."

The two looked over at the door as it opened, Captain Sato walking in.

"Zenigata," the captain said. "I need your gun and your badge, please."

Zenigata stared in confusion at him.

"While we're working on this case we don't need you abusing your power to pick away at any evidence we have. I'm placing you on leave."

"But, sir, I-"

"Your gun and your badge, please," Captain Sato said as he gave Zenigata a stern look.

Zenigata stood and glared at the captain, Haijura standing and placing his hand on his gun.

Captain Sato waved him off.

Zenigata popped the clasp from the safety strap on his holster and removed his gun, tossing it on the table. He grabbed his badge from his coat pocket and handed it to Captain Sato.

"We'll tell you when we get anything else," the captain said. "Just go home and get some rest. Please, Zenigata," he said with a pleading look, wanting the man to stay out of trouble.

Zenigata didn't answer or give any kind of answer in his body language as he turned and walked out of the room.

His ex stood as she saw him approaching her. "Well? Did they say anything?"

He stared at her and shook his head. "They said they'd call if they found anything."

"They said her blood was in the room," Aya said, panicked. "And that they had found bullets. What if she was... oh god."

"We should know soon," he told her as she stared at the floor and cried.

"Stop shoving me, geez," a young woman's voice said loudly, Zenigata and Aya looking back as two officers led her down the hall.

"Ayame," Aya whispered, the girl half smiling at her as she passed.

"Ayame?" Zenigata wondered.

"Toshiko's friend. And her roommate," she said, now hopeful that if Ayame was okay, then Toshiko would be okay, too.

Zenigata glared down the hall. "Stay here," he told his ex as he walked off.

Captain Sato stood and watched as Ayame was led into the interrogation room. He glanced at the door as it was shoved open and sighed. "Zenigata, I told you to go home."

Zenigata responded with a glare as he walked and stood next to him.

"You were never here," the captain said as he glanced at Zenigata.

Zenigata nodded, glaring straight ahead as the missing roommate was now being questioned.

* * *

><p>Haha, guilt trip and angry Zenigata. And what did the roommate say? Nobody will ever know, not even me, until the next chapter. And Zenigata seems tame in this. I always picture him some crazed psycho, but never end up writing him as one. Maybe he'll lose it in one of these chapters.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Zenigata sat in one of the break rooms at the station, his phone held loosely in his right hand as he stared off in thought.

His captain, along with the other officers, would never allow him to get near his daughters case. He knew he would only be told what they wanted him to hear.

"A bunch of bullshit," he muttered, his eyes moving from the floor to his phone.

He let out a deep sigh as he scrolled through the names and numbers of various officers he had worked with in the past. He never called any of them, but he was told it was necessary in case he needed to call anyone for help.

Even when he could have used it, he never called for help. If he was going to do something, then it was he who was going to do it.

But now, now he knew he had to get help.

He scanned the names, remarking mentally on each person's flaws and why he hated them. He passed one name, but quickly scrolled back to it.

"I wonder..."

He had worked with this person several times, once to go after Lupin and the others when he was being punished and forced to work other cases.

The two never got along, both stubborn and set in their ways, each thinking they were the better cop. That stubbornness clashed and made them fail at their jobs, the two having to go back to their boss to get yelled at. This made them resent each other more, the two refusing to work together and never speaking to or seeing each other in years.

Plus, Zenigata hated working with women.

He closed his eyes and forced himself to call the number, his only hope being that she had changed it.

"Inspector Melon," the woman answered unhappily.

'Damn...' He groaned mentally. "Um, h-hi."

"Hello, Inspector," she said. "What is it that you need?"

"I... I need your help."

She opened her mouth to say something, but was surprised by his words, now not knowing what to say in response.

"It's my daughter..." Zenigata sighed.

Her silence wasn't a good sign. He had never made an effort to get along with any of his colleagues in the past and now he regretted it, knowing he really had nobody to turn to when he needed somebody.

"Look, just forget about it," he said in defeat.

"No, wait," Melon said quickly. "What happened to her?"

"She was taken by the Forty Seven organization. I think. I mean, I don't know because nobody will tell me anything." The more he spoke the more frustrated he got with the whole thing.

"The Forty Sevens," Melon said in thought. "If it is how you think it is, that is pretty serious."

"I... yeah, I know."

"Well, what do you know? What have you been told?"

"She was looking into an old case of theirs and someone took her from her dorm room during the night."

"Are you sure the two things are connected?"

"Her roommate... we all thought she was dead, since she was missing, too. But she was at some club all night and when she got back she saw the door open and the mess and ran. Said she tried to call my daughter, but she never answered."

He paused and gazed off, Melon staring off as she waited for him to continue.

"Sorry," he said with a forced laugh. "I'm just tired."

"That's... understandable," she said, wondering about his mental health.

She knew how Zenigata was and was hoping this wasn't the one thing that took him over the edge.

"There was blood at the scene," Zenigata continued. "They haven't told me about the others, but one was my daughter's blood. I think they found something else, but I can't remember..." His voice drifted off.

"You need to get some rest, Inspector. I'll head to the airport now and catch the next flight to..."

"Tokyo."

"Tokyo. Well, I'm in Montreal now, so it'll be a few hours. Rest up until then and we'll go over what happened. Okay?"

Zenigata nodded slowly. "Yeah. Thanks. I mean it."

"Well, I'm just doing my job."

"Yeah," he sighed as he ended the call. He stood and walked slowly out of the room.

...

Lupin nodded to Jigen as both had just finished fitting on the uniforms of the two guards that were now laying unconscious in the bushes outside of the rear entrance to the museum.

Jigen nodded back as he walked around the side of the building while Lupin entered through the back door.

"'Bout time ya got here," one of the guards said as Jigen walked towards him.

Jigen shrugged in response as he was handed the keys.

"Front alarms been a bit of a bitch lately and keeps goin' off. Roger's keepin' an eye on it, though, so unless you hear something, ignore it."

Jigen nodded and watched as the guard walked off. "Hey," he said into the button mic on his cuff. "There's someone watching the front."

"Yeah, got it," Lupin said as he glanced up at one of the security cameras. "Everything okay on your end, Goemon?"

"Fine," Goemon said as he sat in a van parked down the street from the museum.

"Fujiko?"

"I'm fine," she said as she crouched down on the roof of the building.

"Very fine," Lupin sighed with a smile.

"Concentrate on what we have to do," Jigen said, not wanting to hear them flirt with each other.

"Yeah yeah," Lupin mumbled as he wandered down one of the halls.

...

"This is all we could get from the partial," one of the men in the lab told Haijura as he handed him a list of names. The list was short, but proved valuable.

"Interesting," Haijura said as he scanned the names. "And the blood?"

"We only got one name, but the man died in the hospital from his injuries."

"Do we have the body?"

"They're bringing it over," the man said. "We should find out more when we examine the man. Until then, that list should be enough to make an arrest."

"Oh, it will be," Haijura said as he glared down at the paper. "It will be."

...

Lupin grinned down at the guard he had just knocked out inside of the security room. He looked up at the monitors and, feeling no need to delete anything as he would let them know who had robbed them, he shut the cameras off.

"Why bother letting them see how I work," he said as he left the room. "Jigen?"

"I got the two guys at this end."

"Fujiko?"

"Everything is taken care of here," she said, having just sprayed a guard with sleeping gas, the man falling hard to the floor.

"Good," Lupin said. "Get what we're here for and if you see something nice grab it for yourself," he said to Fujiko. "The alarms are disabled, so someone will be by soon to find out why."

"How soon?" Jigen wondered.

"Ten, maybe fifteen minutes."

Jigen nodded as he stood in front of one of the paintings, mentally remarking about how Lupin lied about the size, the painting a lot larger than he thought it would be. He sighed and took it from the wall, hurrying off to grab the next one.

Fujiko wandered the rooms, eyeing the cases as she passed them. When she saw something she liked she'd smash the glass and take the item, not even caring about the crown anymore as there was too much that caught her eye.

Lupin had found his grandfather's items and was busy gathering them up when he sensed something wasn't right. He looked around him and worked a little faster. "Jigen, Fujiko, I think that ten to fifteen has been cut short."

"By how much," Jigen asked.

"Half," Lupin said as he grabbed the last of the items. "Hurry to the meeting place, now."

Jigen mumbled some profanities and grabbed the last painting, holding them over his head as he ran down the halls.

"He wants this?" Fujiko said as she stared down at the simple crown. She shrugged and smashed the case, grabbing the crown and taking off.

"Goemon, we need to move out now," Lupin said.

Goemon nodded, starting the van and speeding around the block.

"So, what's the deal?" Jigen asked as Lupin met up with him.

"Something's not right," Lupin said as he tried to catch his breath, some of the items larger and heavier than he first thought.

"If it was Zenigata, wouldn't he be here by now?" Fujiko asked as she ran up to them.

"Yeah, we would have heard him screaming before he even got here," Jigen said as he looked around, nothing seeming off to him.

"That's what's wrong," Lupin said.

"You made me run for that?" Fujiko said in annoyance.

"He knew we would be here and at what time, so why isn't he here?" Lupin wondered.

"Lupin, really, you're a thief and he's a cop trying to throw you, and us, in jail!" Fujiko said. "Shouldn't you be happy he isn't here? Shouldn't that be some sort of sign that we could take all night robbing this place? I missed out on so many nice things!"

"Wah wah," Jigen said as he rolled his eyes.

"Shut up!" Fujiko growled.

"Damn it, where's Goemon?" Lupin muttered, his patience running out.

"Maybe he's being questioned by Zenigata," Fujiko remarked dryly.

Lupin looked at her and started to say something when the doors around them flew open, cops yelling as they ran in, another group rushing them from around the halls inside. The three were quickly surrounded, guns pointed at them as the cops screamed for them to put their hands up and not to move.

"Lupin," Fujiko said as she was grabbed and pushed forward into the wall.

Lupin said nothing, glaring at the cop as he held Lupin to the wall and searched him.

Jigen was quiet, expressionless as he was also searched.

Lupin looked over as a cop led a handcuffed Goemon towards them.

One of the officers handed Lupin's and Fujiko's guns to another. "Take these two and their friend to the station."

The man nodded and grabbed Lupin and Fujiko by their arms, leading them towards where Goemon stood.

Lupin glanced back as one of the cops was handcuffing Jigen.

"Daisuke Jigen," the cop said as he made sure the cuffs were nice and tight. "You are under arrest for the kidnapping of Toshiko Zenigata."

"What?" Lupin said in shock. He tried to turn himself towards Jigen. "Hey, wait a second! I-"

"Move it," the cop yelled, forearming Lupin in the upper back. "Keep walking. This isn't your concern."

Lupin turned back as far as he could and watched as the cops led Jigen away.

* * *

><p>The Melon in this is anime Melon, not manga Melon. I don't know manga Melon (Melonhead, was it? Whatever...) and don't remember anime Melon. xD I know she was a woman with glasses. So, she will most likely not be in character, if she even had a character in the little bit of that episode. And since I forgot what else I was going to comment on... Man, my memory sucks.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

This chapter is weird, beginning after the first scene, as I felt the need to finish this chapter, yet wasn't in the mood to write a serious story. And so, weirdness and such. :D

* * *

><p>Chapter Seven<p>

"Well, I guess we know why Zenigata wasn't there," Fujiko said as she picked at her nails.

The three were placed in separate cells while the police waited for officers from Interpol to come and take them off their hands.

"And why Jigen had to go to Japan," Goemon added while he sat on the floor in the middle of his cell.

Lupin looked up as he sat on the edge of the bed. "Don't tell me you guys think he did that?" he asked, unable to believe they would turn on Jigen so fast.

"You were the one who said he was acting weird," Goemon said.

Lupin got to his feet and walked to the bars, grabbing onto them as he stared across the narrow hall at Goemon. "Yeah, but not like that! Well, okay, maybe like that, but..." He shook the thoughts from his head, getting even more frustrated. "No, not like that! I meant it more like he was... preoccupied... or something!"

Fujiko scoffed. "Because he had to kidnap some kid."

"No, not because of that!" He glared at Fujiko, who was in the cell next to Goemon. He then turned his gaze to Goemon, who paid no attention to anything around him. "Look, I expect Fujiko to blame him, but not you, Goemon."

Goemon said nothing.

"Fine," Lupin said, turning his back to them. "You two can stay here and believe he's guilty while I work to prove he's innocent."

Fujiko laughed. "And if he isn't? Do we get an apology? Or do we just get your usual excuses?"

Lupin turned and glared at her as she glared at him. "What? Are you mad because you didn't get to keep what you took? Is that it? Jigen ruined your chance to get away with millions of dollars worth of gaudy crap? So now he's automatically guilty? Yeah, just give him the chair right now because Fujiko didn't get her way!"

"Don't be stupid, Lupin," Fujiko smirked. "I'd rather see him hang."

"What are you going to do?" Goemon asked as he opened his eyes and looked up at Lupin.

"I don't know," Lupin said as he pulled a small metal tool from the inside of his shoe and began working on the lock.

Goemon stood and took a step forward. "Take me with. I want to believe Jigen isn't a complete idiot."

Lupin smiled as he got his cell door open. "Thanks Goemon," he said as he walked over and worked to get his door unlocked.

Fujiko stared at the floor expressionless. "Lupin..."

"Yeah?" He opened Goemon's door and let him out, the two standing and staring in at Fujiko.

"You're wrong," she said as she looked up at him. "But, good luck."

Lupin stared at her and gave a slow nod. "See you around, Fujiko." He gave a wave before he and Goemon made their escape.

...

Melon walked up the steps to the dumpy apartment building she was led to. She glanced down at the scrap of paper in her hand and scanned the numbers on the door.

Seeing the one that matched her handwriting she approached, knocking on it and waiting for some kind of response.

She got nothing.

"Inspector," she called through the door, making sure she wasn't being too loud as to disturb the neighbors.

"Heya there," a male voice said from behind.

Melon looked to her right, not moving her head as she glanced at the man out of the corner of her eye.

"Whattaya doin' hangin' 'round here?" The man, short and thin and wearing a bathrobe, sauntered over to her.

She stiffened as the man approached.

"Seein' a loser like that guy..." the man said as he motioned with his thumb at Zenigata's door. "Not gonna be good for your image."

"I advise you to go back to your apartment, sir, unless you wish to be arrested for harassment of a police officer." She turned towards the man and glared at him, holding back the disgust she wanted to express and hating herself for choosing to look at him.

"Tch, you're a cop, too?" The man sneered at her as he stepped back. "Sucha waste," he muttered as he walked back to his door. "Dumb bitch..."

"Oh, don't mind him," an old lady said as she came out of her apartment.

Melon looked at her and forced a smile.

The old lady walked towards her, getting up close to her face so she could see her. "So, what would a pretty girl like you be doing here?"

"Um, well, I-"

"Oh, are you the nice Inspector's girlfriend?" another woman piped up as she joined the old lady.

"No, I'm just-"

"Can you believe Sagu called this pretty thing a horrible name?" the old lady said as she "tsk"ed and shook her head.

"I don't know why he isn't evicted," the other woman said.

"His father owns the building," the old lady said in an angry tone. "He is nothing but filth."

"And I can't believe I actually cooked him dinner all those years ago."

Melon turned towards the door and knocked louder and more desperately.

"Oh, how rude of me," the woman said as she looked at Melon. "I never offered you any cookies."

"I thought I smelled something," the old woman said with a smile. "Are you holding out on me, again?"

"Oh, no," the woman laughed. "Don't be silly. I made them for our bridge night."

"She bakes the best cookies," the old woman said as she lightly tapped Melon on the upper arm. "You really should have some."

"Um, no, I... no thank you," Melon said with the same forced smile on her face. "Is he in?" she then asked them quickly, before either could start talking.

"Oh yes," the old lady said. "He dragged himself home late last night. The poor thing, he must be so worried."

"It's a sad thing when even an officers daughter isn't safe in this country," the woman said.

"Are you here for the case?" the old lady gasped.

"You're a cop, too?" the woman asked with a strange excitement in her voice. "Well, if you're here to help get that sweet girl back..."

Melon watched as the woman barged into Zenigata's apartment. "Um, I don't think that's..."

"Time to get up, Koichi, dear," the old lady said as she opened the blinds and allowed the light to fill the small space.

"... necessary," Melon finished, standing just outside the door as the two women managed to get Zenigata awake.

"I'll bring some cookies over for the two of you later," the woman said, smiling at Zenigata and Melon.

Melon flashed a nervous smile, stepping to the side as the two women shuffled back to their apartments.

Zenigata looked up and glared at her.

"Hi," she said, nervous smile still present as she gave a small wave.

...

Lupin glanced down at the gas meter on the small plane he flew.

"...and that he even had a child," Goemon said as he continued on their conversation.

"Yeah, he had a life before me," Lupin said, preoccupied as he tapped the meter with his finger.

"And Jigen knew this?"

"No, Jigen didn't even know me back then."

Goemon opened his eyes and glanced unamused at Lupin. "I meant, did Jigen know about Zenigata's daughter?"

"What? Oh, yeah, that."

"Is there a problem?"

"No, I'm just... just thinking. But yeah, I told him about the kid a long time ago."

"So he knew."

"Doesn't prove anything. I knew about her, so, what, am I involved in this thing, too?"

"I'm not accusing him of-"

"You are, Goemon, so knock it off!" Lupin turned his head away from him and stared out the window.

Goemon glared at him before turning his head and closing his eyes.

"He was set up," Lupin said, his voice loud as anger and confusion filled him. "That has to be it. Because there's no way that he..." Lupin exhaled through his nose as he slumped his shoulders. "He didn't do this," he muttered.

"I understand," Goemon said. "The evidence may be stacked against-" Goemon stopped, opening his eyes wide and hanging on as Lupin sent the plane into a sharp dive. "What are you doing?"

"We need fuel," Lupin said, glancing over at Goemon.

Goemon loosened his grip and stared with uncertainty at Lupin as the plane was straightened.

...

Zenigata sat on the floor, holding his head as the headache from his hangover pounded relentlessly.

Melon stood behind him, staying silent.

Anger grew in Zenigata as he stared down at the file for his daughter's case. "Are they sure it was him?"

"So far he's the main suspect. The only suspect, actually."

"When does he arrive?"

"After they process him and prepare for the trip... probably by tonight sometime."

"If Lupin doesn't bail him out," Zenigata muttered.

"I doubt that. Reports say he stole a plane and is over Russia."

Zenigata slammed the file closed. "I want to talk to him."

"You'd never be allowed near him. I thought that was why you called me. So I could act on your behalf." She looked at him and grinned.

Zenigata lifted the file and held it up.

Melon reached down and took the file. "You can tell me what you want me to say on the way to the station. How's your headache?"

"Hurts like hell," he said as he stood and walked towards the door. "Let's go."

...

"So," Melon said, sitting across from Zenigata, the two at a nice restaurant. The two had been sitting in silence as Zenigata inhaled plate after plate of food, Melon only getting something small and some tea.

"Oh yeah," Zenigata said as he just finished his sixth plate, the headache now down to a mild pulse. "I almost forgot. Congratulations on your big promotion."

"Oh." Melon looked down in embarrassment. "Thank you."

"Three years working on that case?"

"Two."

"That's even better. Two years and bringing down the biggest drug lord in Columbia? A lot different than when I first met you."

"Yeah, well..." She thought about how she wanted to turn that into a compliment for him, but realized he hadn't really accomplished much in all those years. 'Except a bunch of failures,' she thought sadly. "Thank you," she chose to say instead.

The two sat in silence, the minutes ticking by as both drank their tea.

"I... I know you want to avoid this, but..." Melon stared at him in sadness. "Just because Jigen has been arrested, it doesn't mean he'll talk. And the longer your daughter is missing, the more-"

"I know," Zenigata said as he set his cup down roughly. "And they've arrested the wrong guy. This is all just a big waste of time. A big waste of whatever time my daughter has left, if she still has any at all."

Melon watched in shock as he got to his feet and walked off. She turned back to her tea and lowered her head, knowing this would be her hardest case yet.


	8. Chapter 8

I hate how lately I write a chapter and then say "Okay, I'm done." and go on to something else when I could easily write two or three more chapters. And yet, even knowing I do this, I continue on my odd ways. Oh well, at least I finally got this chapter done. :D Pathetic Zenigata needs to go away so Psychotic Zenigata can take his place. Not really sure he fits into this, but... xD

* * *

><p>Chapter Eight<p>

At the Tokyo station, Detective Haijura stood in front of other detectives and officers. Behind him was a board, a timeline of what they knew and photos of various people on it.

"And Officer Sato said she left right after their dinner," one of the detectives said, the group once again going over everything they knew.

"Yeah, look," Haijura said in frustration. "We know Sato had nothing to do with any of this, so we should just have him as a dead end and leave it at that. That kid is-"

He quickly stopped himself, knowing he shouldn't say anymore, not wanting it to get back to his boss. And Officer Sato already had a not so flattering reputation, so Haijura knew he didn't have to say much more than he did to get his point across.

"All I want to know is how a guy like that scored with a girl like her," another detective said with a laugh.

"She's adopted, right?" a high ranked officer remarked as he walked up to the board and stared at Toshiko's photo. "There's no way Zenigata's her father."

Another detective laughed. "Have you seen her mom?" he said with approving look.

"Hey, anyone know if she's seeing anybody?" one of the detectives asked, his question getting laughs from some of the others.

"Okay, everyone," Haijura yelled. "That's enough! May I remind you we have a missing persons case to work on?"

The laughter and joking stopped, everyone composing themselves and getting back to the case.

"Thank you," Haijura said as he glared at everyone. "We know she was secretly working on a paper about the Forty Seven gang. The man who started the gang is dead and his son works at a hospital as a surgeon as is not involved in that lifestyle. The only two who would have past dealings to hide are these two."

Haijura pointed to two photos, the names Hu Long and Akira Suzuki written under them.

"Mister Long is now a career politician in Beijing. Mister Suzuki is a university president. Both have a lot to lose should certain buried incidents surface."

"Should we go and pick them up?" a detective asked.

"No," Haijura said after a long pause. "They could be flight risks. Look into their records, first. See who they've been calling, if they've flown anywhere recently, if any large amounts of money have passed hands. If anything looks suspicious, then we can pick them up."

Haijura looked towards the back of the room and narrowed his eyes.

"Try not to let them know anything is up," Haijura said. "You all know what to do."

The group nodded and started out the room, staring at Zenigata and Melon as they stood at the back.

"You shouldn't be here, Inspector," Haijura said as he walked towards the two. He stared at Zenigata and then looked down at Melon. "Neither of you should be here."

"I'd like to-" Melon started, quickly cut off by Zenigata.

"What do you have on Jigen? How is he involved in this?"

Haijura smirked. "We have evidence linking him to your daughter's room. Tell me, Inspector, was your daughter involved in him somehow?"

"What?" Zenigata growled.

"Was she rebelling against you and consorting with the enemy? Maybe getting information about a certain gang for her term paper?"

"My daughter wasn't like that," Zenigata said as he grabbed Haijura by the front of his jacket.

Haijura laughed at the move. "Are you trying to get arrested, Inspector?"

"Inspector, please," Melon said, trying to calm Zenigata down.

Zenigata glanced back at her and then looked back at Haijura before letting him go.

"As you know," Melon began, "Interpol has had a long going interest in the Forty Seven organization and it's surviving members. Your captain has already okayed my request, so if you wouldn't mind I would like to go over some information with you on this case."

"And him?" Haijura asked as he glared at Zenigata.

"Being the father of the victim, he is not to be involved in this discussion."

"Which doesn't stop you from sharing everything I tell you with him..."

"It does not. But you have my word that I won't share anything imperative to the case which may jeopardize the results of your investigation."

"Fine. And if you do, I'll have your badge, Inspector." Haijura started out of the room. "Yours, too," he said as he passed Zenigata.

Zenigata stopped Melon on her way out. "You gonna be okay?" he asked in a low voice.

"Figuring I've come completely unprepared and will have to pull a lot of this information from memory..." She nodded and smiled at Zenigata. "I'll be fine."

Zenigata nodded, letting Melon go. He stood and stared at the board at the front of the room, his expression blank as he took in everything on it.

...

"When do you think he'll arrive?" Goemon asked.

Lupin had long ago landed the plane at the airport, he and Goemon sitting inside of it in silence until then.

Lupin stared off out the window, his eyes gazing at nothing as his mind was busy thinking. "I don't get it," he said in frustration.

Goemon was sitting in a meditated state, nothing about him changing as he waited for Lupin to explain.

"Why him?" Lupin said in almost whine. "And why her?"

"So, you do think he's guilty."

Lupin was silent, choosing not to answer the question. "He had to of pissed somebody off. So, who?"

"We can ask him that at the station, at whatever time he is to arrive."

"If Zenigata hasn't killed him by the time we get there..."

"Lupin," Goemon said, opening his eyes and turning his head towards the thief. "I believe he's innocent."

"Well, when we get to the station you can tell the police that and maybe they'll let him go," Lupin said in anger as he threw open the door and got out of the plane.

Goemon glared at the door that had just been slammed shut. Letting out an angry sigh, he opened his door and followed Lupin into the airport.

...

"Inspector," Captain Sato said as Zenigata sat in the hall waiting for Melon.

Zenigata looked up.

"If you're up to what I think you're up to, you should stop."

"And what do you think I'm up to, sir?" Zenigata asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Bringing this Inspector Melon into all of this."

"I didn't bring her into this," Zenigata said with a raised voice. "She's working on a case."

"Which is why you two have seemed rather close since her arrival." The captain stood and stared down at Zenigata as he waited for a response. "I checked into your friend's story and found out something really interesting."

Zenigata rolled his eyes up at the captain.

"Did you know that Interpol has no case on the Forty Sevens? They have cases on the individual gangs that broke away from the organization when it collapsed, but nothing on the original gang. Isn't that fascinating?"

Zenigata said nothing.

"End this now," Captain Sato growled as he pointed a finger at Zenigata. "I took your badge temporarily, but I can always change my mind and decide to keep it, if need be."

Zenigata rolled his eyes. At that point, keeping his job was the lowest of his priorities and he found it ridiculous that his captain would use that to threaten him with. "Then keep it," he muttered.

Captain Sato was taken aback at the remark.

Zenigata stood and stared blank-faced at his captain. "I've seen these things turn out horrible because we had to do everything by the books, follow every protocol for fear the department would be sued, only to find the victim laying in a pool of their own blood. And then you and everyone other higher up puts on a little act about how painful this all is for you, while mentally you're breathing a sigh of relief and smiling about how you kept those filthy lawyers away."

Captain Sato stared angrily at Zenigata, every second causing even more outrage. "Inspector, I-"

"Unlike you, I don't have to think about what you're up to." Zenigata's words were spoken calmly, but it was clear by the tone that he was very irate. "I already know. Was it your idea to set up those charges? And if my daughter is found alive, is it your idea to immediately handcuff and arrest her for what she's done? Just to save your ass?"

"Inspector, you know how these things work," Captain Sato said through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, unfortunately. Inside politics and all that bullshit. Whatever happened to protecting the innocent and locking up the criminals? Anymore it seems those lines are blurred. You can just do me a favor and keep my badge. I don't think I want it anymore. Not after this."

"In-Inspector," Captain Sato called out as Zenigata walked away. Knowing there was nothing more he could do about the situation, he sighed and walked off in the opposite direction.

...

"Come in," Zenigata said, staring up at his door as it opened.

Melon walked in, a questioning look on her face as she stared down at him.

Zenigata stay seated on the floor and continued to suck on the bottle of booze he held.

"I waited around for you at the station," Melon said. "One of the officers said he saw you leaving."

"They want to arrest her."

"Yes, I know," Melon said sadly. "Detective Haijura said the case against her is strong."

She sat down on the floor across from him.

"She could be dead and all they'll care about is that missed opportunity..." Zenigata muttered as he stared at the floor.

"Don't say that. We're going to find her."

"Captain Sato knows why you're there. I'm sure he won't allow either of us inside the station."

"But, you still have some clearance, right?"

Zenigata shook his head slowly. "I quit."

"What?" Melon's spirits sunk. How were they supposed to get anywhere now?

"Captain Sato wants to run for mayor next year. Everything he's done the past year and a half has been for political gain. If he could arrest the kidnappers and my daughter at the same time, it'd be a big win for him."

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"Detective Haijura let something slip during our conversation. I don't even think he realized it, but he basically said they were going to pin all of this on Jigen, to cook up some story about him and a Mister Long and a Mister Suzuki."

"The one's they're looking at... Great." Zenigata shook his head in disbelief.

"You have enough to stop them, Inspector. When we find your daughter, they will-"

"I'm not an inspector anymore," Zenigata said pathetically. "And Captain Sato would bury me if I said anything. Just let him do what he wants and obtain his dream of becoming mayor. I can't do anything to stop him."

"Call Lupin," Melon said.

"What?" Zenigata said, baffled by what she had just suggested.

"Set up a meeting with him. If the police will no longer help, then maybe he can."

"He's a criminal, Inspector."

"And his friend is going to be set up if we don't do anything."

Zenigata sighed, not knowing what to do.

"Detective Haijura told me a lot more, but if Lupin will agree to help, then I'll discuss it at our meeting." Melon pulled out her phone and held it out. "He's our trump card, Zenigata. We should use him."

Zenigata stared up at the phone. With another long sigh, he grabbed it and made the call.


	9. Chapter 9

I have no idea what to do with this story, this chapter changing three times already. And sick of being indecisive over such things, I just decided to keep the last version I wrote and make it work. The dialog isn't the best thing ever, but the story can hopefully move forward.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Nine<span>

Lupin was suspicious of the phone call and said very little, giving Zenigata an address to meet him at and then hanging up.

"How do you want to play this," Goemon asked as he sat cross-legged on the floor.

"Very carefully," Lupin answered as he sat back on the couch.

Goemon opened his eyes and glanced up at Lupin.

"We go along with whatever plan they have," Lupin said as he glared off at the far wall. "No matter how stupid it is, we do it. Once the initial phase is over, that's when things change. We grab Jigen and get the hell out of there."

"And if it isn't that easy?"

"We'll make it easy." He looked over at Goemon and grinned.

Goemon nodded.

Both looked over at the door, Lupin motioning for Goemon to stay put while he stood and snuck to the door. He pulled out his gun and opened the door.

Zenigata had his hand up ready to knock on the door when it opened.

Lupin grabbed Zenigata and Melon by their jackets and yanked them inside, shoving them against the wall next to the door.

"Damn it, Lupin," Zenigata growled as he shoved the smaller man away. "We're alone."

Lupin peaked out into the hallway before closing the door. "You said you had something to tell me," he said as he walked near Goemon and stood by him.

Zenigata and Melon walked to the couch and sat down.

"I have information about this case," Melon said.

"And what's this information going to cost me?" Lupin wondered as he stared at her, his face expressionless.

"You ask Jigen about it before the police can." Melon gave Lupin a stern look.

"And why can't you do that?"

"We aren't working the case."

"Then what exactly are you doing here?" Lupin looked at Zenigata and grinned. "You two... you know... a couple or something?"

Zenigata glared at Lupin, ready to explode on him when Melon spoke first.

"I was called in to help on the case, but my services are no longer needed. The police have a different lead now then they had before."

"You know what I hate?" Lupin said as he glared at her. "I hate being lied to. And I hate being tricked even more. So, if you do want my help in all of this, you can start by telling me the truth."

Zenigata sighed in annoyance. "I called her in so she could get me the information I couldn't get, as I've been locked out of this case. But the captain found out, so now-"

"You're both screwed," Lupin said as he smirked.

"Yeah," Zenigata said through clenched teeth. "And while we're here wasting our time with you, my daughter is out there somewhere in danger."

"Well, then tell your friend not to lie to me next time and we-"

"How about you stop lying to us," Zenigata yelled. "And you can start by telling us what you know!"

Lupin shrugged. "I'm sure you know more than I do, so why don't you start."

Zenigata shook in anger.

"Fine," Melon said.

"Huh?" Zenigata glanced over at her, unhappy at her quick decision.

Lupin walked over to a chair and sat down.

"The police believe that ex-members of the Forty Seven gang are involved in this," Melon said as she pulled a file from her jacket.

"And what business would they have with your daughter?" Goemon asked as he glanced at Zenigata.

"She was trying to solve my father's murder," Zenigata said.

Lupin scoffed. "The police still haven't solved that? I thought everyone knew that Huan Xu was behind it."

Zenigata narrowed his eyes at Lupin. "They do know. They just didn't want to get involved. And how did you know?"

"My dad told me years ago. He mentioned something about him finally dying, so I asked who he was." Lupin looked up at Zenigata. "So, you never told your daughter?"

"She never asked. And I didn't know she was working on the case."

Lupin laughed. "And all she had to do was ask someone. She's stubborn just like you."

Melon took out two photos and handed them to Lupin. "These are the two men the police are planning to blame the kidnapping on. They will be brought in and questioned, a deal will be made and they will then turn around and arrest Jigen for the whole thing."

"And who are these guys?" Lupin wondered as he stared at the photos.

"Hu Long and Akira Suzuki. Both once the faithful bodyguards for Huan Xu."

"So, the police aren't even trying?" Lupin asked as his anger built up. He tossed the photos down on the coffee table.

"There is a small deal between the police and the friends of Xu," Melon said. "Although the remaining members are old, retired and past their criminal stage in life, they are still very powerful men with strong connections to the wrong people."

"What connection does Jigen have with the Forty Sevens," Zenigata asked.

Lupin shook his head and shrugged. "I don't know."

"You two have been partners for years and you expect me to believe that?" Zenigata yelled.

"I know it may be hard for you to believe, but we don't really sit around and spend our free time sharing our life stories with each other."

The two sat and glared at each other before Melon finally spoke up.

"He should be arriving at the airport now. We need to get going. I'll explain everything else to you in the car."

The four left the room and went down to the garage, where Lupin's car was. Not one to trust Lupin, Zenigata took the keys and drove, Lupin and Goemon sitting in the back while Melon sat up front and explained what she knew and their plan.

...

"Move it," an officer said as he shoved Jigen forward towards the door to the plane.

The plane had landed twenty minutes earlier, the preparations being made for the transport to the main station in Tokyo.

Jigen was in a blue jumpsuit, his legs chained together and his hands cuffed, a chain connected to the cuffs holding his hands down, the other end of the chain connected to the chains on his legs.

He said nothing as he awkwardly made his way forward, the officer then helping him down the stairs and to a group of awaiting officers.

"Transport van called in five minutes ago," one of the officers said. "They're running a little late."

The officer from the plane nodded, glancing around and making sure there was nobody suspicious in the area.

Three minutes later the van arrived, the driver getting out and apologizing for making them wait.

The officer was fine with it, following the driver to the back, the driver unlocking the door and Jigen being placed inside, his chains handcuffed to the van so he couldn't move around.

The back door was shut and locked, the driver thanking the officer and getting into the truck, waving and driving off.

"You should have stayed out of this, Lupin," Jigen said.

The driver grinned and removed the cap he wore. "And how would that be any fun?" he asked.

"So, is it true?" Goemon asked from the passenger seat.

"I heard they found a shell casing with a partial print inside the dorm room," Lupin said as he glanced behind him, looking at Jigen through the steal mesh that separated the front from the back.

"Good for them," Jigen said.

"Ask him where she is," Zenigata demanded, his voice coming in through the earpiece Lupin wore, Zenigata and Melon able to hear everything that was said inside the van.

"Yeah, that's a good question," Lupin said. "Where's Toshiko?"

Jigen said nothing.

"Jigen? Please tell me you had nothing to do with this." Lupin glanced behind him.

Goemon looked through the mesh and glared at Jigen.

"Because," Lupin continued, "this whole thing is ridiculous. There's no way you'd help some extinct gang try to protect something everyone pretty much knows about. Right?"

"Ask him about Long and Suzuki," Melon said.

"So, you know about a Long and Suzuki?" Lupin asked. "Are they the ones who hired you?"

Jigen still remained silent.

"Okay, you know what?" Lupin spat. "I'm here trying to save your ass, so the least you could do is answer one of my-"

"I don't know them," Jigen said.

"Thank you," Lupin sighed in annoyance. "Was that so hard? Now, tell us you had nothing to do with this."

"They weren't the ones who hired me," Jigen said.

Lupin's spirits sunk.

Goemon quickly jerked his head back and stared at Jigen.

Zenigata screamed into Lupin's earpiece, but his loud words weren't heard.

"Jigen, you mean... You..." Lupin couldn't believe it. He wanted so hard to believe his friend was innocent.

"Where is she?" Goemon asked.

"Somewhere safe," Jigen answered.

"Where?" Goemon demanded.

Jigen only stared at him.

Lupin tensed with anger. He quickly slammed on the brakes and got out of the cab, walking around to the back and opening the door.

Jigen watched as Lupin leaned over him.

"Why didn't you say anything," Lupin asked in a low voice. "Why?" he screamed.

Jigen looked down.

"I stuck up for you," Lupin said through clenched teeth. "I did all of this knowing that you were innocent, that you had pissed someone off and that they set you up! That everything the police knew was wrong! What the hell is wrong with you? Why'd you do it?"

"It's not what you think it-"

Jigen was stopped when Lupin quickly punched his face.

"You son of a bitch, where is she?" Lupin yelled.

When Jigen didn't answer, Lupin decided to punch him again. That was followed by another punch. And then another.

"Stop," Goemon demanded.

Lupin backed off and looked over at Goemon, who glared at him. He then looked back at Jigen. "One more chance. And if you don't answer I'm driving your ass to the police station. And then when you get there they will show the pictures of Toshiko's blood and the casing with your print on it and use that in the murder case they plan to set up against you."

"Hey, she's alive, okay?" Jigen yelled.

"Then where is she?" Lupin stared at Jigen, silently pleading to him to answer.

"Somewhere safe," Jigen said.

"Jigen, please," Lupin begged. "The guy running this case wants your arrest and death to be on his record. Long and Suzuki will tell him whatever it is he wants them to say and it won't take them long to tell him that you murdered Toshiko. And these two guys changed their lives around and help people, so who do you think the public will believe? You or them?"

"But, I won't die," Jigen laughed. "You won't let that happen."

Lupin stared at him for a couple of seconds before turning to leave the back of the van.

"Lupin..."

Lupin stopped as he placed his hands on the back handle. "How many people in prison here want to kill you," he asked. "How do you expect me to protect you from them?"

"Come on," Jigen said with a nervous laugh. "Stop joking around and take these chains off."

Lupin opened the back door and left, slamming the door shut.

"What are you doing?" Zenigata yelled at him. "We need him!"

"No we don't," Lupin said as he got back into the cab. "He's useless to us."

"What are you saying?" Zenigata screamed. "He knows where my daughter is!"

Lupin took the ear piece out and set it on the dash. He put the van in gear and drove off.

Goemon glanced back in confusion at Jigen and then stared at Lupin. "This wasn't what we had planned."

"Plans change," Lupin said as he glared out the front window.

He turned onto the highway and drove towards the station, the three sitting in silence.

"Okay, wait," Jigen finally said.

Lupin glanced back at him for a moment, saying nothing as he waited for what he had to say.

"The kid was digging deeper then she should have," Jigen said. "She found out about a prostitution ring and was asking around. Word got back to the owner of the ring and he ordered her to be killed. A guy I know who is working undercover heard about it and told me to grab her."

"And things didn't turn out like they were supposed to, right?" Lupin asked, the anger from before still present in his voice.

"No, everything worked out fine."

"Really. Which is why you've been arrested for kidnapping."

"I hired two guys and told them we were searching for something, so we tore the place apart. After that was done I shot the guys and they took off. I dropped a shell casing on the floor and waited for Toshiko to get back. When she did I grabbed her, making sure to get her blood at the scene. Once I had her I was told where to take her."

"Which was?"

"I can't say."

"It's me, Jigen! You don't have to worry about me leaking anything to anyone!"

"The one in charge of the prostitution ring is a cop," Jigen said as he glared at Lupin. "This van is bugged and if I tell you, then he'll find out and send his men out there to kill her."

Lupin stared off in disbelief.

"I've already said too much," Jigen said as he sat back and sighed. "Shit. That's why I didn't want you getting-"

Gunfire exploded and bullets pelted the van. Lupin slammed on the breaks to slow the van as he ducked down, the car with the gunmen passing them, one of the men inside sticking half his body out the back window as he propped a rocket launcher on his shoulder.

Lupin's and Goemon's eye widened as the rocket was fired.

"Hang on," Lupin yelled as he stepped on the gas and swerved out of the way of the rocket.

The rocket hit the ground a foot from the van, the blast causing the van to tip over, the speed and the intensity of the turn causing the vehicle to flip and tumble out of control.

...

"A cop?" Zenigata wondered, holding his head in his hands as he stared off at the floor and thought about who the person behind all of this could be.

Melon stood and watched the footage of the crash on the TV.

"So, the Forty Sevens weren't even involved in any of this..." he muttered. He glanced up at the TV as policemen kept the onlookers back.

"I'm calling the chief," Melon said as she grabbed her cell phone.

"Oh my god," Zenigata said in realization. He jumped to his feet and grabbed Melon's arm. "We need to get there now!"

"What? Why?"

"Any one of them could be our suspect," he said as he pointed to the TV. "And right now we're the only two cops Jigen can trust. So we need to go before the wrong person gets ahold of him."

Melon nodded and followed Zenigata out of the room. "Yes, Chief?" she said into her phone. "This is Inspector Melon. It seems I've run across something big."


	10. Chapter 10

The last chapter took an odd turn and was written strangely in parts. To me, anyway. Well, it's what I have to work with now, so lets see what i can do with it...

So, I find this odd, but lately I've noticed that whatever music I'm listening to (which is a small select group) causes me to do certain things. Sounds weird put that way, but, for example, when I listen to Audiomachine my mind is thinking of how I could use that music in a trailer, one which I will never do, since I never do them. But in my mind, those trailers are fantastic. Les Friction and E.S. Posthumus makes me think of ideas for two of the comics I'm writing. And Two Steps From Hell makes me think of ideas for the third comic I'm writing. And the only group that actually makes me sit up and say "I'm going to work on this!" has been Awolnation. Listening to this album, I've so far written two chapters of my stuff and have done several reviews. I can see myself burning out on this album soon. xD

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Ten<span>

Melon sped to the scene, getting to the group of parked police cars, lights still flashing as the cops kept the small crowd of onlookers and reporters away.

She screeched to a halt and both jumped from the car, Melon showing her badge to get her and Zenigata entrance to the scene.

Zenigata looked around, Goemon sitting on the ground and getting his wounds treated while Lupin was on a stretcher and in the process of being loaded into the ambulance.

Zenigata stared in worry at Lupin as the doors to the ambulance closed. He looked over as a police officer helped Goemon to his feet and started to lead him to another ambulance.

"Goemon," he yelled as he ran towards him. "Where's Jigen?"

"Some officers took him back to the station," he answered weakly as he favored his arm and limped towards the ambulance.

"How long ago?"

"Ten minutes?" Goemon said, not really in the mood to talk and looking quite pathetic as he tried to suppress the pain that ran through his body.

"You need to get back, sir," one of the officers said, nudging Zenigata out of the way so the ambulances could get through.

Zenigata glared at the officer and then looked around for Melon.

Melon pushed her way through the media as they all gathered to get a shot of the leaving ambulances. She spotted Zenigata and ran towards him.

"Find anything out?" he asked.

"One of the officers said that the two officers who were the first at the scene secured Jigen and then left with him when the others arrived."

"Did you get any names?"

"No."

"Damn it," Zenigata sighed. "We need to get to the station and see if they ever arrived."

Melon nodded and the two rushed back to the car.

...

Goemon stood as one of the nurses approached him. He had already been cared for and released, the small cut on his head bandaged and his sprained wrist wrapped, his arm put in a sling.

"You can see him now," the nurse said.

Goemon nodded and followed her into the room Lupin was being kept in.

Lupin laid in bed, covers up to his chest as he slept deeply, the drugs from his surgery still in his system.

Goemon stood and stared down at him. His eyes narrowed as anger filled him, his only thoughts being that of killing those who tried to kill them.

"How is he?"

Goemon turned as Zenigata and Melon entered the room.

Goemon looked back at Lupin. "He's fine."

Zenigata nodded.

"Did you talk to Jigen?" Goemon asked.

"Yeah, about that..." Zenigata said as he stared off in frustration.

Goemon turned and stared at him.

"He never made it back to the station," Zenigata said.

"He escaped?" Goemon asked.

"No. The cops who took him never arrived, either."

Goemon tensed in anger.

"I believe this is yours," Melon said as she handed Goemon his sword, the police taking it from the scene and putting into evidence.

Goemon took it happily and nodded. "Thank you."

"I need to get to the station and talk with Detective Haijura," Zenigata said as he turned to leave.

"Let me go with," Goemon said as he stepped towards him.

Zenigata glared at him and then looked over at Melon.

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on Lupin," she said.

Zenigata nodded to her and walked out of the room, Goemon following him.

...

"Any idea who is behind this?" Goemon asked, the two nearing the station.

Zenigata stopped for a red light and tapped his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel. "No. You?"

"No."

There was a long pause as the two stared out the front window, the cars crossing by at a slow pace.

Goemon looked at Zenigata in discomfort. "If what Jigen said was true, I'm sure that he-"

"Your opinion on this doesn't matter to me," Zenigata barked.

"Yeah." Goemon looked away and closed his eyes.

Zenigata sighed, his anger fading. "To be honest, I don't think he had anything to do with this. I think he's covering for someone."

Goemon looked over at him, shocked by his words.

Zenigata glanced over at Goemon for a split second. The light turning green, he stepped on the gas and sped down the street.

They arrived at the station and hurried inside. Zenigata travelled freely, finding Haijura sitting on a desk in the investigation room.

Haijura looked away from the detective he was speaking with. "Will you excuse us?" he asked of the detective.

The detective nodded and wandered out of the room.

Zenigata looked back at the man and waited for him to leave. With what he now knew, he wasn't sure who he could trust.

"I need to talk to you about this case," he said to Haijura, unsure if he could even trust him, but with no other options.

Haijura stared in disinterest at Zenigata before glancing with the same bored look at Goemon. "What about it? And do I have to remind you that-"

"Look, forget all of that, okay?" Zenigata yelled. "You're being lead down the wrong road on this!"

"Look, Zenigata, I think you should go home, get some rest, let us take care of-"

Zenigata slammed a hand down on the desk. "I'm telling you that you're going after the wrong people," he said, his voice raised, but turning into a low growl towards the end, not knowing who could be listening in.

"Really. Your new friend tell you this?" Haijura said with a smirk.

"The Forty Sevens have nothing to do with this," Zenigata said. "You have to believe me."

Haijura let out a short laugh. "Because Lupin told you, right? Told you all about how his friend is innocent?"

"Damn it, Detective, he told me nothing! It's someone within the station. My daughter found something out and now someone is trying to shut her up."

"You're saying it's a cop?"

Zenigata looked behind him, making sure no one was there.

"What do you know?" Goemon asked, his voice close to being threatening.

Haijura glared at Goemon and folded his arms across his chest. "We know nothing," he answered, frustrated by the fact. "We get some good leads and they go no where. We get suspects, their alibis check out. Files of random people are thrown at us, only for it to be a waste of time."

Haijura looked over at Zenigata and sighed in anger. "The Captain asked us to interview your ex three times, just in case she might have left something out. I told Captain Sato it was bullshit and if it was going to be like this then I wanted off the case. He just scoffed, said I was bluffing and that new information came through and to look at it."

"What was it?" Zenigata asked.

"Case files from thirty years ago. More dead ends. Look, Zenigata, it may not look like it, but I want to find your daughter. It's my job. If there's one thing that pisses me off it's when I fail and allow someone to die. But, honestly, if what you say is true, it's starting to make sense."

"Maybe your captain knows something," Goemon said.

Haijura scoffed. "Yeah, good luck in getting him to talk, if he does know something."

"He'll talk," Goemon said.

Haijura and Zenigata watched as he turned and left the room. The two gave each other nervous glances before hurrying off after him.

...

Jigen woke up, slowly opening his eyes to darkness. He tried to move, but found himself bound to the wooden chair he sat in, his legs tied to each leg and his wrists tied up behind his back. More rope was wrapped around his chest, securing him firmly in place.

"Good evening, Jigen," a man said.

Jigen squinted his eyes as he looked towards the desk at the far end of the room, everything hidden in shadow.

"It's nice to see you all in one piece after that horrendous accident." The man grinned. "Sorry to hear about your friends, though. Such a shame."

Jigen's eyes opened wide in shock. He looked down at the floor as he remembered what had happened.

"But, since you survived, you can now tell me where you're keeping the girl." The man looked over at another man who was standing to his right and nodded.

The man walked towards Jigen and stood at his side, glaring down at him.

"You heard the boss," the man sneered.

Jigen glared at the man behind the desk and then up at the man next to him. "You and your boss can fuck off."

The man looked back at his boss, who nodded, and then looked back down at Jigen. "You're gonna be sorry you said that."

The man fitted on iron knuckles and threw out a quick jab, hitting Jigen hard in the jaw.

The impact almost tipped the chair over, but Jigen only grinned and laughed. "I've been hit harder by women," he said.

The man tensed in anger, pulling his hand back and throwing his fist towards Jigen's left cheek.

Jigen's head jerked back from the punch, the pain shooting through his body. He never let it show, though, the smile still on his face.

The man behind the desk stood and pounded his hands down. "Tell me where she is," he yelled, patience wearing thin.

"Find her yourself, you lazy fuck," Jigen replied.

The man looked to his left and nodded at the second man with him.

The man was larger than the first, walking out from behind the desk with a wooden bat in his hands.

"This is the last chance I'll show you any mercy," the man behind the desk said.

"You can take your mercy and shove it up your-"

The bat was swung low, the last word to Jigen's sentence being a loud yell of pain as the wood connected with his left shin.

Jigen lowered his head, every muscle in his body tense as he waited for the next blow.


	11. Chapter 11

This will just have to be the "How many odd turns will this story take?" story. "How many inaccuracies can this story have?" "Why do the characters seem everywhere, different dispositions in every chapter?" And as much as I want to rewrite this, again, I'm not going to. I'll just try and make what stupid mistakes in the story I've made work. And try to write up a quick outline of what's happened so far so I don't have to hunt through each chapter to find something I don't remember. xP

And it'd be completely out of character to have Goemon do something, so he's his usual useless self, just kind of there for no reason.

Man, I want seasoned potato wedges. :( -shakes my fist angrily at food for taunting me-

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Eleven<span>

Haijura pushed the door to his captain's office open, the usually closed door cracked open.

"Captain Sato," Haijura said as he entered, Zenigata and Goemon following.

They found the office empty, the three glancing at each other and nodding.

"Any files on this case will do," Haijura said as he and Zenigata began searching cabinets and desk drawers.

Goemon stood with his back to the now closed door.

Zenigata opened one of the captain's desk drawers, shuffling papers around and finding his badge and gun. He paused as he stared at the items. Narrowing his eyes, he swiped the badge and placed it in his jacket pocket, grabbing his gun and placing it in an inner pocket.

"Should I say 'welcome back', Inspector?" Haijura asked as he flipped through various files.

Zenigata glared at him. "If the Captain is involved, I won't let some fraud like him push me out of my job."

"Hmm." Haijura tossed the files back in the filing cabinet.

"Someone's coming," Goemon said.

The two officers stopped what they were doing and turned towards the door.

Goemon stepped aside, his sword ready to have it's handle thrust into someones midsection as the door opened.

"Hey, dad, I-" Officer Sato looked up from the file he stared down at, stopping quickly as he stared at the three men staring back at him.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't..." Sato said, not knowing what was going on.

"It's fine, Officer," Haijura said.

"Is my da-, is the Captain here?" he wondered.

"No," Haijura said. "We were hoping you knew where he was."

"Um, well," Sato said as he eyed Goemon nervously. "He wanted me to bring this file to him this morning."

"It's long past morning, Officer," Haijura said as he took the file and glanced at it. Finding it of no interest he tossed the folder on the desk.

"Yeah, well, something else came up and- look, what's going on here?"

"We have some questions about the case."

"You found Toshiko?" Sato was excited at the news.

Zenigata only glared at the man.

"No, unfortunately," Haijura said. "We do have some leads, though."

"Oh," Sato said, staring down in sadness. "Well, I should get back."

He started to leave when Zenigata stepped forward.

"Officer Sato," he called out.

"Yeah?" Sato stopped and turned towards him.

"Did my daughter say anything to you in confidence?"

"No, not that I can think of."

"What about the paper she was working on?"

"About Captain Abe? She just said she was almost finished and was excited about it, for some reason. I guess getting into that school means a lot to her."

"Did she mention anyone from the station to you?"

Sato looked around nervously, feeling as if he were being grilled for something he didn't do. "Well, I mean, only that some of the officers were rude and disgusted her, but that was it."

"Rude how?" Zenigata wondered in annoyance.

"She just said they'd flirt with her and ask her out and that if you were here they wouldn't be man enough to say anything like that. And that was when she said she was almost done with her paper and started talking about school."

"I see. You should get back to work."

"Y-yes, Inspector," Sato said, bowing before quickly rushing out the room.

"I want to talk to her roommate," Zenigata said.

"We've already been there, Inspector," Sato sighed.

"Well, maybe she knows someone who knows something." Zenigata pushed his way passed Haijura and walked out the door. Goemon glanced at Haijura and then followed Zenigata. Haijura sighed and reluctantly followed.

...

Melon stood at the window of Lupin's room, staring outside in boredom as Lupin slept deeply. Hearing her phone ring she reached into her pocket and answered it.

"Inspector," Zenigata said. "Is everything all right there?"

"Yes," Melon answered in confusion. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Just wondering. How's Lupin? Does he know anything?"

"He's still asleep. The nurse said the medication should be wearing off anytime soon."

"Good. When he wakes up I want to know everything. We're on our way to the school now to talk to the roommate. I'll call you when we leave."

"Alright."

The call was ended and Melon placed the phone back into her pocket.

She stood there gazing down at the outside for a couple of minutes until a groaning behind her made her turn.

Lupin draped an arm over his eyes, his other arm raised as his hand held his head.

"Lupin."

Lupin groaned a response.

"Lupin," she said a little louder as she stood at the side of the bed, staring down at him.

He raised his arm and opened an eye at her. "What?" he whined. "God, where am I? Why does my head hurt?" He ended his whining with a low groan that slowly died off.

Melon rolled her eyes. "Aside from the obvious, there's nothing wrong with your head, Lupin."

"How do you know?" he asked. He glanced at her and smiled.

"I need to know anything else you may know about this case."

"Wow, getting right to the point. That's not fun." Lupin sat up in bed, acting as if he hadn't just been in an accident. He smiled and crossed his arms behind his head as he leaned back.

"This isn't a game. I need to know. Please."

"Take off your shirt."

"What?! No!"

"Oh, come on. You can leave your bra on. I'll let you."

"You're disgusting, you know that?"

"Yeah," Lupin said with a happy sigh. "But, I'm not talking for free."

"As much as you want this to be about you, it isn't," Melon said angrily. "There's a young woman out there somewhere whose life is in grave danger! Now, I need you to tell me whatever you know!"

"Is she cute?" Lupin asked as he closed his eyes and smiled. "Because I'll only help if she's..." And with that he was out, once again in a deep sleep.

Melon groaned, frustrated by the lack of information.

...

"God, I already told you guys what happened," Ayame, the roommate, said in annoyance, being pulled away from time with her friends. "You really that stupid?"

Zenigata glared at her, forcing himself to keep his mouth shut, as hard as that was for him to do. How could his daughter live with someone as disrespectful as this girl.

"Tell us again," Haijura said as he stared expressionless at her. "Maybe you'll remember something."

Ayame let out a loud sigh and rolled her eyes. "Fine."

The three stared at her as she began to retell what she did that night.

...

Melon sat in a chair near the foot of Lupin's bed. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she glared at him.

'Why do I get to be the lucky one?' she wondered, feeling she could be more useful elsewhere.

She glanced up as the door opened, Fujiko walking in.

Fujiko saw Lupin and gasped, running up to the bed. "Lupin," she said while nudging him.

He moaned, his eyes still closed.

"I'll leave you two," Melon said, standing and walking out of the room.

Fujiko turned and watched her leave, then turned back towards Lupin.

"Is she gone?" Lupin whispered as he peeked an eye open.

"Yeah," Fujiko said, confused by his actions. "What's going on?"

"How the hell should I know," Lupin said in frustration as he sat up in bed. "Nice to see you out of prison, though," he grinned.

Fujiko narrowed her eyes at him.

"And... you were right, I think," he said as he stared down at the bed in thought.

"Yeah, I heard something about it on the news."

"You did? What'd they say?"

"That Jigen was being transported and has his buddies help him escape."

"What? It was nothing like that. He'd never do anything to put me and Goemon in harm. Would he?" He stared up at Fujiko, hoping she could assure him it wasn't like that.

"Oh, you mean like how he'd never kidnap Zenigata's daughter?" she scoffed.

Lupin sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"What'd he say about that?" she asked. "Or was he his usual quiet and stubborn self?"

"He just said some bullshit about prostitution rings and cops and not wanting me involved. I'm still trying to figure out what he was talking about. And god, the medication is kicking in again," he groaned as he rubbed his face. "Shit. I don't know... what he..." He closed his eyes and fell back to the bed.

"Lupin?" Fujiko gently poked his arm.

"Hmm?" He forced his eyes open and looked up at her.

"Did he say anything else?"

Lupin only moaned in response.

Fujiko sighed and stared down at him.

As Lupin fell back to sleep Melon stood out in the hallway, leaning against the wall next to the door.

Seeing something dark near the end of the hall she looked up, staring at the two large men in black suits as they came towards her.

She pushed herself from the door and reached inside of her jacket for her gun as she continued to watch them.

One of the men reached inside of his jacket.

"Lupin," Melon yelled towards the door. "Lupin! You need to get out of here now!"

The man pulled out his gun just as Melon pulled out hers, Melon turning towards the man and lifting her gun, taking aim just as she was grabbed from behind.

Melon struggled with the man, who threw her roughly against the wall.

Fujiko stood and listened to the sounds of the struggle over the screams of the onlookers. She glanced back at Lupin and cursed him for choosing that time to fall asleep.

She struggled to lift him from the bed, pulling him out of it and holding him up.

The door was kicked open, Fujiko glaring at the men just as she threw down some smoke bombs, the thick grey smoke quickly filling the room.

Shots were fired randomly and the men heard the glass of the window shatter. Coughing, they ran to it as the smoke started to dissipate, the foul smelling obscurity being pulled outside.

One of the men looked outside and saw nothing as the other looked around the room, seeing that Lupin was gone.

"Damn it," the one looking out the window yelled. "Come on! We can't let them get away," he yelled as he ran out of the room.

The other man followed, passing the third man just as he finished slinging an unconscious Melon over his shoulder.

Everything starting to settle down, Fujiko cracked open the closet door and looked out at the room. She looked back at Lupin, watching as he fell forward and landed hard on his face.

She groaned, feeling lucky that the men were really stupid, but not lucky as she now had to lug Lupin out of there.

...

Fujiko glared at Lupin, the phone in his jacket that was sitting on his lap starting to ring.

"Can he pick a more annoying ring tone?" she growled, looking to the road as she sped down it.

She reached over blindly, pawing for the phone and finally digging it from the pocket it was in.

"Yeah," she answered as she swerved around a slow moving semi.

"Fujiko?" Zenigata asked. "What are you doing there?"

"Escaping from the men who just try to kill us." She glanced into the rear view mirror nervously, no signs of anyone following her for the whole trip, but wanting to be as cautious as she could.

"What?" Zenigata yelled out in shock. "What the hell happened? Where's Inspector Melon?"

"I don't know," she said, starting to feel as though she could relax. "I think those guys took her."

Zenigata clenched his teeth in anger, his hand tightening around the phone.


	12. Chapter 12

Since I got in the mood to work on this story again and sort of know where I'm taking it...

I had written most of this chapter last year and then stopped for some reason and just had to write the end from the notes I had. So, it might read like two different people wrote it, not sure. Because 2012 me and 2013 me are _so_ completely different.

* * *

><p>Chapter Twelve<p>

Lupin opened his eyes and looked around the room he found himself in. It was dark and quiet and didn't have that pungent smell the hospital had.

He sat up quickly as panic set in. Had he been caught and taken somewhere? He reached for his gun and found it still inside the holster. "Hello?" he called out, his eyes taking their time adjusting to the darkness.

He groaned and winced as a light was suddenly turned on.

"Lupin," Fujiko said as she rushed towards him. She knelt down by the couch he had been sleeping on and gave him a look of worry.

"Hey," he said with a smile as he ran a hand through her hair and stared into her eyes.

"Ugh, you jerk!" She slapped his hand away and stood, turning and walking away.

"What'd I do?" he whined.

"Do you know how worried I was about you? When you were fine this whole time?!"

"Fine?" Lupin spat angrily. "I had a piece of metal impale my side, which is killing me, by the way! Don't you have any painkillers here, wherever 'here' is?!"

"Gosh, Lupin, I'm sorry that I didn't have time to stop at the pharmacy while guys wanting to kill us were chasing me! Next time I'll try not to be so selfish!"

Lupin stared at her in confusion. "Wait, what? Who was after us? The cops?"

"If it was the cops, don't you think I would have said it was the cops?!"

"I don't know," he yelled. "I don't even know what the hell you're talking about!"

Fujiko glared at him while letting out a long sigh. "There were men at the hospital," she said as she tried to calm down. "They came into your room to kill you or something. I hid with you in the closet while they thought we escaped. And then when they left I dragged your ass to my car and came here."

"And you've never seen them before?"

Fujiko growled in annoyance. "No! I think I've made it clear I don't know who the men were! Did that accident injure your brain or something?!"

Lupin just grinned, finding Fujiko all that more attractive when she was angry.

"Wipe that stupid smile off your face," she muttered while crossing her arms over her chest.

He shrugged and laid back down, a small moan of pain escaping his lips as he did so.

She looked over at him in concern and wishing she did have something to give him to take the pain away. "Jigen was taken by them."

Lupin glared off at the ceiling. "Do you know where?"

"No. They took Inspector Melon, too. She was the reason we were able to escape."

"Zenigata must be pissed..."

"Yeah, probably," she sighed as she stared down at the floor.

"I've been thinking about what Jigen told me," Lupin said after a long bout of silence between the two. "I think this is somehow connected to the Forty Sevens. And that there is a cop involved. But the other stuff about the prostitution ring, I don't get how that fits in."

"Could it be an ex-cop?" she wondered.

"No. It has to be someone with a great deal of power. Someone who doesn't want their secret out." He closed his eyes and sighed. "We have to figure out who Jigen was working with. Someone working undercover as a cop, most likely."

"And how do we-" She glanced at the door and drew her gun, pressing against the wall as the door opened. She stepped out and pointed her gun at the heads of the ones who entered.

"Fujiko," Goemon said to her, lowering his sword as he was prepared to strike her. "Is Lupin here?"

She nodded and pointed to the couch, both Goemon and Zenigata walking towards it.

"I don't know," Lupin said before the two even had a chance to say anything.

"Who were the men after you?" Zenigata asked demandingly.

"I don't know," Lupin sighed. "I don't know who they were, where they took your friend, and if they have anything to do with your daughter. I also don't know where she is or where Jigen is and who is behind all of this."

"What do you know?" Goemon asked.

"That there's probably a cop involved. Someone pretty high up in the ranks and wanting to do what they can to hide something that'll ruin their career."

"Inspector Melon had her phone on and we were able to track them for a few miles until we lost the signal," Zenigata said while grabbing a chair and sitting in it. "All we know is that they were heading south."

"They'll probably try to get information out of her," Lupin said. "I'm sure they're doing the same with Jigen."

"She doesn't know anything," Zenigata said angrily. "Is Jigen reliable?"

Lupin grinned. "He'll die before he talks. He's loyal like that."

"Loyal to who, though," Goemon wondered.

"Don't know," Lupin shrugged. "If you guys want me to be of any help at all I'm gonna need some strong painkillers and a laptop."

The others nodded.

"Goemon," Lupin said as he looked over at him. "I need you to stay here with me, in case those guys come back. And also," he said as he looked at Fujiko and Zenigata, "I'm gonna need some booze. Something strong. I promise to solve this thing before I die of an overdose," he laughed.

"You better," Zenigata muttered before turning and leaving with Fujiko.

...

The pain from Jigen's broken leg had dulled long ago, not bothering him at all as two men dragged him down a dimly lit hallway.

The men said nothing as they took him to a room. Opening the heavy metal door he was then shoved inside.

He fell to the floor with a growl of pain. Favoring his leg he attempted to stand, only to fall back down.

Laughter came from the other end of the room.

There a click and the lights were turned on, Jigen shielding his eyes, both of which were almost swollen shut from the beating he had received, from the sudden brightness.

With blurred vision he looked towards the laughter, a short pudgy man in a suit standing next to a woman chained to the wall. Next to the woman was a tall skinny man, also in a suit.

"So, Jigen," the short pudgy man said. "I figured since you weren't ready to talk that maybe you needed an incentive. And my men just happened to find this nice lady inspector outside of your friends hospital room."

Jigen didn't quite understand how that was supposed to make him talk. He wasn't Lupin.

"Tell us where the girl is and you can have this lady to do with as you wish," the man laughed. "But, if you choose to remain silent, then I'll let my men have their way with her."

"You're disgusting," Jigen said.

The man only laughed at this.

"Don't say anything," Melon said. "Whatever happens to me, you can't tell them where Toshiko is."

"Tch, fuck," Jigen said through clenched teeth.

"It's all up to you, Jigen," the man said as he walked towards him. "Who will be the more disgusting one? Me or you?" He laughed as he placed a foot on Jigen's broken leg, slowly putting pressure on it.

Jigen yelled out in pain. "Asshole," he managed to get out as his breathing was now labored and pain once again shot through him.

"Well?"

"Fuck... fuck you."

The man laughed at Jigen's response. He then looked over at the skinny man and nodded.

The skinny man looked all too happy as he stepped in front of Melon, an evil grin on his face as his hands reached towards her.

Jigen could only stare down at the floor, not wanting to see what was making Melon scream and cry the way she was, but knowing all too well what the man was doing to her.

...

"What'd you find out," Zenigata asked as he walked towards Haijura, who was standing outside the station as he smoked a cigarette.

Haijura glanced at him and exhaled a large cloud of smoke. "Nothing. The boy the roommate talked about said he wasn't even at the school that night. I had my men check out his story and they found out he was telling the truth, that he spent the night at the hospital after a bout of food poisoning."

Zenigata glared at the ground. "Well, that's a dead end anyway."

Haijura gave him a curious look.

"I think that the person behind this is someone who works at the station."

"A cop?" Haijura laughed. "And you know what will happen to you if you're wrong on this, right?"

"If it gets me my daughter back, I don't care what happens to me."

"It's your career," Haijura shrugged. "But tell me, what made you think this theory of yours?"

"It was something Jigen said."

"You spoke to him? I thought his fellow kidnappers rescued him from being persecuted."

"I didn't talk to him, but Lupin did."

Haijura stared at Zenigata in disbelief before laughing. "Inspector, he's a criminal and Jigen's boss. Of course he's going to say it's an inside job. Hell, I wouldn't be shocked if he set up that whole accident and then went on about how the cops were behind it all."

Zenigata said nothing. He knew how it looked, him taking the word of someone like Lupin, who had everything to gain in Jigen's supposed innocence. And it would have really bothered him, taking Lupin's side, if it weren't for the fact that he actually truly believed Jigen was one of the good guys in this case.

"Look, Inspector," Haijura said as he dropped the last of his cigarette on the pavement and snubbed it out with his shoe, "We've already concluded that this has to do with the Forty Sevens, either past members or from one of their many branches."

"Have we?" Zenigata glared at Haijura.

Haijura sighed. "The captain seems to think so, so I think we should, for now, follow this path. Look, I'm not fully on board with this theory, either, but we don't have much to go on and our main suspect is now MIA. But, if you wish to take the word of a career criminal over that of hard and thorough detective work, then that's your choice."

Zenigata nodded slowly. "Have your men found anything else out?" he asked as the two walked towards the stations front doors.

"There have been some suspicious behavior from our two persons of interest. We're looking more into that."

"Is it possible that I can see my daughter's laptop?"

"I can release it to you if you wish. We've been over it several times now and there's nothing much to go on."

"Yeah, I'd like to have it," Zenigata said as they walked into the room for the detective unit.

"Fine. Just wait here and I'll get it for you."

Zenigata nodded, watching as Haijura left the room. He glanced at the timeline and walked towards it, staring at the various photos and information they had so far.


	13. Chapter 13

Did anything happen in this chapter? I have no idea. I don't even remember writing it. xD I swear this story keeps changing with every chapter I write. I went through the old notes and deleted them all, as none of them worked anymore. Hopefully it'll all make sense the closer I get to the end...

* * *

><p>Chapter Thirteen<p>

"Well?" Zenigata stood staring down at Lupin as he sat and went through Toshiko's laptop.

"Nothing," Lupin answered as he stared at the screen. He turned and looked up at Zenigata. "But, whoever had this last erased a lot of the files."

"It was locked up in evidence," Zenigata answered, now more frustrated by the situation.

"Who has access to that room?"

"Everybody."

"So, the whole station," Lupin sighed.

"Now what do we do?" Zenigata wondered, not willing to give up but not knowing where to go to get anything of use.

"Well, with computers, you can delete files but they aren't really gone. So, let me see if I can retrieve what whoever tried to get rid of..."

Zenigata sat down as Lupin worked to grab the missing files.

"Hey Fujiko," Lupin said, his eyes not leaving the screen as she walked in.

Zenigata glanced over at her as she approached them.

"I got what you wanted," she said as she grabbed Lupin's laptop, placing the memory card from her camera into it and loading all of the pictures she took.

"Zenigata, go over those pictures with Fujiko and see what you can find. I'm almost done here."

Zenigata nodded and he got up, walking to the table Fujiko sat at and standing behind her.

The two scanned the photos, all of them being buildings in the area that the signal from Melon's phone was last received.

Along with the photos they looked at aerial maps, Fujiko pointing out where each of the buildings from the pictures were located.

Zenigata stepped back as his phone rang. He reached into his jacket pocket and answered it.

"Inspector," Haijura said as he rushed through the station. "I was wondering if you've heard from Captain Sato lately."

"No. Why?"

"It's just that I tried to talk to him this morning and he seemed strange."

"Strange how?"

"I don't know, but I think there's something going on with him. He left his office in a hurry. Also, his son hasn't show up for his shift and he never misses a day."

"Do you think whoever took my daughter has the captain's son?" Zenigata wondered as Lupin and Fujiko glanced over at him.

"I don't know. Me and some of my men are on the way to the captain's house right now to check if anything happened to him."

"I'll meet you there," Zenigata said, ending the call and placing the phone back in his pocket.

"I've got some bad news," Lupin said as he stared at the laptop's screen. "I was able to get the files, but they've all been corrupted. I can't even figure out what the names of them were."

Zenigata, annoyed at this, could only nod in silence. He then glanced over at Fujiko. "I might be gone for a while. Call me if you find anything."

Fujiko nodded as she continued to look at the pictures.

Lupin glanced up as Zenigata left the room. "I hope Goemon is enjoying his lunch. He's sure taking his damn time getting my food back to me."

Fujiko grinned.

"Hey," Lupin said as he continued searching Toshiko's laptop. "Her report is missing."

"Well, it's obvious it was deleted."

"No. It would have been a Word file, but I found nothing like that in the corrupted files I pulled up."

"And?"

"She didn't have it on here, so I'm thinking flash drive. When Goemon gets back I need you to go to her dorm room and check the place out. It was important to her and if she did feel that she uncovered something then she might have hid it somewhere. It could be what we need."

"Yeah, sure."

"Aww, listen to this," he said as he grinned. "My father called me today and I don't know why. But just hearing his voice made me smile. It's weird, but whenever I hear him I'm taken back to childhood, to the times when he'd take me to the park, how'd he push me on the swings and how we'd-"

His reading was stopped when Fujiko slammed the screen down and took the laptop away.

"Hey!"

"We aren't here to pry into her personal life, Lupin."

"Aren't you just a bit curious?"

"No," Fujiko answered as she glared at him.

"But we can find out about the softer and fatherly side of Zenigata and annoy him with it."

"You're unbelievable. How can you even-"

"Hey, my food is here," Lupin said happily as Goemon walked through the door.

"Here," Fujiko said as she handed Goemon Toshiko's laptop. "Make sure Lupin doesn't touch this."

Goemon glanced down at the machine and then back at Fujiko as she left. He then glared at Lupin, not knowing what he had done but feeling as though he deserved the dirty look.

Lupin didn't notice, though, his mind concentrating on the food he was now eying hungrily.

...

By the time Zenigata got to Captain Sato's house Haijura and his men were already there, their cars parked out front.

Zenigata parked his car behind theirs and ran inside the house.

The place was a mess, someone or a group of people ransacking it.

"Inspector," Haijura said as he stepped out of the kitchen.

"What happened here?" Zenigata said in anger.

"We aren't sure. The only one home was the captains wife and she's on the way to the hospital now. Apparently whoever was here decided it was necessary to beat on a poor defenseless woman." Haijura tensed with anger as he glared off at the floor. "Their son's place was also a mess. Some of the officers went there this morning to check on him and found the place torn apart."

"So, they're looking for something, then," Zenigata said in thought as he stared off at the far wall.

"That or they just want it to seem like they are." Haijura looked up at Zenigata. "How are things on your end? Find anything out?"

"Just narrowing down the locations Inspector Melon could have been taken."

"Good. That's good."

The two were silent as they looked around.

"Oh," Haijura said. "There is another problem. We went in to check the database for the Forty Seven files and found them all corrupted."

"And not many people have access to those," Zenigata muttered to himself.

"Hmm?"

"It's nothing. I was just wondering if that has to do with all of this. If somehow the captain is involved in this."

"He has been making political enemies with his bid for mayor. And one of the men we are looking at, Hu Long, is a politician."

"In Beijing."

"That doesn't matter. Countries influence political choices all the time. And with the growing tension between China and Japan it may be something along these lines."

"And his son?"

"What better way to tell someone who you don't want running to bow out than to kidnap his son?" Haijura said. "It makes sense."

"Not really..." Zenigata muttered as he glanced at the mess around him.

"A ruse, Inspector. Make it look like a robbery."

"Which would only work if there wasn't also a kidnapping."

Haijura laughed, as if belittling Zenigata's intelligence. "Then the kidnapping would be to so they could torture the kidnapped into telling them where what they want is located."

"Like my daughter?" Zenigata glared at Haijura.

Haijura laughed nervously and backed off. "I'm sorry. I have a bad habit of not seeing the bigger picture when it comes to things like this."

"I understand," Zenigata said, regretting that he also had that problem. "Let's go back to the station and look into every case Officer Sato was working on. Let's also see if we can't figure out a way to find the captain."

Haijura nodded, the two leaving the house.


	14. Chapter 14

Grr! This thing keeps deleting my elipses and making me go through and add them again. Be gone, foul creature! I have not been able to type lately and my eyes are killing me from lack of sleep, so if there are mistakes, there are mistakes.

Man, Goemon needs a "Dr." in front of his name. "Dr. Goemon, Medicine Woman"

* * *

><p>Chapter Fourteen<p>

"So," Lupin said as he stood across from Goemon, who was now going through the photos. He poured out some pain pills into his hand and downed them with water.

Goemon stared expressionless at him. "Didn't you just take some of those an hour ago?"

Lupin shrugged. "It's not your body that's in pain," he said in annoyance. "When the phone signal was lost, was it lost suddenly?"

"It cut in and out a few times and then was gone. Why?"

"Okay, so we know the signal in that area is weak so it could be a lost signal. Or that her phone suddenly died. Or she was taken somewhere where the signal would be blocked."

"There are a couple of large buildings here," Goemon said, not really knowing what Lupin was talking about.

Lupin walked around to the back of Goemon and glanced over his shoulder. His eyes scanned the photos that were remaining, Goemon flipping slowly through each one. "Wait, wait, go back."

Goemon did as he was told and stared at the picture of the old dilapidated factory. "That would stop a signal?"

"No, but that would," Lupin said as he pointed to the gray cement building in the background.

"The old power plant," Goemon said. "But that's outside of the radius," he said, referring to the area that Lupin and Zenigata figured Melon was as they took into account the cell towers and where they could reach.

"It is, but..." Lupin grabbed his phone and called Zenigata. "It's worth a try."

"Yeah," Zenigata said as he answered his phone. He glanced over as Haijura stared at him and then started to walk away from the man.

"It's the old power plant," Lupin said.

"But we would have gotten a signal there."

"Look, maybe they found her phone and shut it off or smashed it or something. It's the only location in that area that would fit. Just go there, okay? Find them."

"Yeah, I'm leaving now." Zenigata pocketed his phone and ran out of the station.

Haijura stood and watched him, wondering what was going on.

...

Jigen was tied to a metal chair in the middle of a small room. Two men stood in front of him, both having fun taking turns punching his face.

They and their boss knew long ago that Jigen wouldn't talk, so they figured they'd have fun slowly beating him to death.

They were almost at that point, the loss of blood and shock to Jigen's body causing his heart to beat just a little slower, his breaths almost gasps as his body sought the oxygen it wasn't able to get.

"That's enough for now," one of the men said after the other man had punched Jigen hard in the ribs. "Besides, when his time comes, the boss wants to be the one to finish him off."

The other man laughed before he spit on Jigen.

"Let's go have some fun with the girl," the man laughed evilly.

The other man mimicked his laughter as they left the room Jigen was in and went to the room next door to it, wanting the two to be close so Jigen could here Melon's pain.

Jigen could only sit there, his head down as the blood from his nose, mouth and cuts on his face dripped into his lap. He was no longer able to block out the cries of pain from the inspector.

He wished he could stop it, but he knew he couldn't. Even if he lied to the men the both of them would just be killed once they found out the lead led them nowhere.

By staying silent it gave the both of them just that much more time should anybody find them, if anybody was even looking for them.

At that point he felt that anyone who cared had already marked them for dead and that the urgency was no longer there.

And so he stayed silent, enduring the pain that was brought upon him.

The screams from next door suddenly stopped, the place falling into silence. Jigen glanced up at the wall, then flinched as a single gunshot echoed the halls.

The two mens laughter was faint as they seemed to enjoy whatever it was they had done.

Jigen bowed his head, his body tensing with anger. It was only then did he reach his breaking point, tears falling from his eyes as he sobbed.

The two men smirked as they entered the room and stared at him.

"Aw, look, the baby is crying," one mocked.

"What's the matter," one asked as he knelt down in front of Jigen. "Did we kill your girlfriend?" He looked back at the other man, the two laughing.

A yell in the distance made them stop laughing.

"The cops?" one asked to the other.

"Who knows. Whoever it is, let's go kill them."

The other nodded happily and they both ran from the room.

"Inspector," Zenigata yelled as he made his way through the darkened rooms of the abandoned plant. "Jigen!"

He ducked down as a bullet struck the wall above him. Glancing around quickly, he found a place to use for cover and ran for it, ducking down behind a low dividing wall.

The bullets trailed him as he ran, a few flying over him while some struck the floor to his right.

"Where'd you go?" one of the men laughed.

"Nowhere to run," the other laughed.

Zenigata stayed quiet as he listened, hearing the two men walking around. He glanced over at an old book left behind and grabbed it. Moving to a kneel, he tossed the book over the wall and towards the hallway he had just come down.

The book fluttered through the air and landed with a dulled thud, the two men turning towards the noise and firing.

Zenigata raised up and took aim, hitting one of the men and aiming at the other when he was hit in the shoulder. He grunted in pain and ducked back down as the bullets continued to hit the wall.

The remaining man stood in anger and continued firing until his bullets were gone, nothing but a click sounding with every pull of the trigger.

Zenigata stood and aimed his gun at him. "Where are they?" he demanded to know.

"Haha, fuck you," the man answered as he pulled out a small device and pressed it.

Zenigata turned as a high pitched beep sounded behind him, a red light flashing next to a timer that was now turned on, the numbers counting down from five minutes. Next to the timer was a large block of explosives.

The man laughed and ran off.

"Shit!" Zenigata ran from the room, passing several other explosive devices as he got farther into the plant.

He ran from room to room, yelling out the names of those he was looking for, seeing his time running out whenever he passed by another timer.

He was beginning to wonder if this wasn't all just a trap when he heard a yelling coming from above him.

"Jigen," he yelled as he ran up the stairs to the second floor.

Another yell told him he was getting close.

He rushed to the area, following the yells until he got to the room they were coming from, standing in shock at the man sitting before him, a man who seemed to be covered in his own blood.

"Jigen," he yelled as he rushed towards him. "What the hell'd they do to you?" he asked as he untied him from the chair.

"No," Jigen wheezed. "Get... other room... she was... killed." He shook his head slowly as it was bowed.

Zenigata stared at him in shock and nodded, leaving and checking the room Jigen had motioned to. He threw the door open and stood in shock, Melon laying motionless on the floor. "No..." he muttered, walking slowly towards her as she laid in a pool of blood. "Inspector Melon," he said loudly as he knelt next to her. He saw she was still breathing, just barely, and picked her up. Carrying her out of the room he ran down the hall, passing the room Jigen was in. "I"ll be back for you, Jigen," he yelled as he ran by.

Zenigata ran by a timer as it was down to two minutes and he wondered if he even had time to get back. Never one to give up that easily, he knew he had to do it if it got him killed or not, as it was his duty to do so.

He stepped outside of the plant and ran to his car, setting Melon down by it and calling for an ambulance, letting them know that the plant was ready to explode any minute.

Not having the time or patience to keep talking to the operator he hung up on her and ran back into the plant, up to the second floor just as the timers hit thirty seconds.

He ran to the room Jigen was in and grabbed him, carrying him out into the hall and looking around. He ran down the opposite end of the hall and veered towards the outside of the building, glancing over as a timer he passed began counting down from ten seconds.

He caught sight of the sun shining through where a window used to be and ran towards it, grabbing Jigen tightly as he dove out the opening and started to fall to the ground.

As he fell the plant exploded, the blast shoving he and Jigen forward. Zenigata lost his grip on Jigen, both of them falling hard to the ground. As they laid there unconscious the sirens ringing out in the distance got louder.

...

Lupin and Goemon could only stare at the news coverage of the explosion. The reporter then mentioned that three people were found and taken to the hospital.

"Do you think they were inside when it exploded?" Goemon wondered as he glanced at Lupin.

With nothing else mentioned on the three victims Lupin could only shrug. "I hope not. Let's find out where they are so we can see them."

Goemon nodded and the two quickly left the apartment.

...

Fujiko snuck into the dorm room, wandering the small space and looking around. She spotted a desk on the far wall by the window and walked to it, opening and searching the drawers.

Noises outside the door made her pause and look back behind her, the noise continuing on down the hall and fading off.

Dumping the contents from the drawers on the floor and not finding anything, she moved on, eying the book shelf in the corner.

"Too many books," she said, eying the items in annoyance. Sighing, she began to grab each book and flip through them, holding them by their spine and shaking them roughly, hoping for something to fall out.

Nothing did, though.

The two most obvious places having no results Fujiko stood in the room and looked around. Her eyes stopped on something that seemed off, a large poster on the wall that was pinned close to the ceiling.

With enough wall space below it, it made no sense for someone to hang it so high.

She grabbed a chair and placed it under the poster, stepping up on the chair and taking the two top pins out of the poster and letting it fall.

A smile came to her face when an old heater grate was exposed. Removing the screws she removed the cover and felt inside, a look of disgust coming to her face as the vent was filled with dirt and dust.

She reached back farther, her fingers touching something small and hard. With one last lunge she reached farther in and grabbed the item, seeing that it was a small flash drive.

She looked down at the item in her hand and smiled. Her smile didn't last, though, as the door to the room opened and Ayame stood there staring at her.

"Hey," Ayame yelled out in shock. She looked around in panic and looked towards one of the campus police officers. "Officer! There's someone in my-" She grunted as she was shoved back, Fujiko running past her and down the hall.

"Stop," the officer yelled as he gave chase.

Fujiko pushed her way past students as she ran down the stairs to the first floor. Shoving the front doors of the building open she ran outside to the parking lot, jumping on her motorcycle and starting it. She glanced back as the officer, joined by another, left the building and ran towards her. She waved to them and revved the engine before speeding off.


	15. Chapter 15

Fifteen

"Just take your time, Mrs. Sato," Haijura said as he stared down at her.

Mrs. Sato sat up in the hospital bed and stared down at the cup of water she held tightly in her hands.

"If there's anything you remember..." Haijura contined to stare at her.

"I'm sorry," she said sadly. "The men had masks on and it sounded like they were speaking lower than their normal voices."

"Did they say anything?"

"They wanted to know where my son was. Does he have anything to do with-"

"We don't believe he does, but... We can't find him."

Mrs. Sato gasped. "And my husband?"

Haijura sighed in frustration of the current state of things. "We're looking for him, too."

"I don't know why anyone would do this," Mrs. Sato said as tears formed in her eyes. "They haven't done anything."

"You just concentrate on getting better, okay?" Haijura said as he gently squeezed her shoulder. "We'll find your family, so try not to worry too much about it."

Mrs. Sato smiled. "Thank you, Detective."

...

Jigen laid still in bed, his eyes closed and his breathing steady. The swelling on his face was still there, as were all the cuts and bruises he suffered from the ordeal.

Lupin and Fujiko sat besides him while Goemon stood and stared out the window.

"We'll look at that drive tonight," Lupin said, his eyes unable to move away from Jigen.

Fujiko nodded as she stared down at her lap.

"What if we don't find anything?" Goemon asked, the anger he was feeling coming through in his tone.

"We'll find something," Lupin answered.

The three stayed quiet as a nurse came in to check on the machines. She smiled at them and then left.

Goemon glanced over his shoulder at Jigen before returning his gaze to the outside. "I can't believe one girl is worth all of this," he muttered.

Lupin let out an angry sigh and stormed out of the room.

"Damn it," Fujiko sighed, standing and following him out.

...

Zenigata, his arm in a sling, stared down as he stood next to a sleeping Melon. He was relieved to hear she was going to be okay, but angry with the fact that she was never really going to be okay.

"I'm sorry," he said to her. "I'm sorry I pulled you into this. This whole thing is my problem. And... I should have never called you."

His body tensed as he continued staring at her. He took a deep breath and tried to relax, finding that he couldn't. With nothing else to say and feeling more guilty with every passing second, he gave her one last look and left the room.

...

"You heard him," Lupin said as Fujiko stood in front of him and tried to get him to calm down. "I can't deal with it anymore!"

"And how many times have you said that? And how many times have you actually gone through with your childish threats?"

"None," Lupin mumbled as he glared off.

"It isn't that Goemon doesn't care. He does. A lot. And we all deal with things differently."

"I guess..."

"So, stop being a baby about it and-"

"Lupin," Zenigata said as he walked towards the two.

Lupin and Fujiko glanced over at him.

"I don't want you involved in this anymore," Zenigata said.

Fujiko was silent, giving him a confused look.

Lupin scoffed and shook his head. "I'm seeing this thing through to the end."

"No you're not."

"And who are you to decide what I do?"

"I don't want anyone else to get hurt over this, okay? It's my daughter who was kidnapped. Let me handle-"

"You can't do this by yourself!"

"So you and Fujiko and Goemon can get killed? And I can have that on my conscious, too?"

"Nobody is gonna be killed, okay? Stop being stubborn!"

Zenigata let out an angry sigh and took a couple of steps back as he stared off. "I called Inspector Melon in to help me and look what happened to her. Jigen got himself involved and was trying to help Toshiko and now he's laying in a coma that he might not even come out of!"

"He'll wake up," Lupin muttered as he stared at the floor.

"Will he? And what if he doesn't? What then?"

"I said he'll wake up!"

The two men were silent as they glared at each other.

Fujiko sighed and shook her head at the two. "Look, Inspector, we appreciate the thought, but I think we're pretty much involved in this now. Jigen is our friend and, just like you want to find out where your daughter is, we want to find out who put him in here. So, I'm afraid you're stuck with us."

He stared at her as she smirked. He then watched as she walked by, brushing against him as she squeezed between him and the wall. He looked back at Lupin, only to find he had gone back into Jigen's room. Alone in the hallway, he sighed and wandered off.

...

Zenigata stumbled up the stairs to his apartment, the smell of alcohol heavy on his breath. He thought it'd make everything go away, but now he just felt guilty.

'I'm out drinking while Toshiko is...' He didn't want to finish that thought. Especially since he had no idea what her predicament was.

Jigen said she was safe somewhere, but how safe and where was she. Was she living it up in a huge mansion in some other country or was she holed up in a shack on the outskirts of the city?

And for how long would she be safe?

Those ideas left him as he reached into his pocket for his keys, but instead found a small piece of plastic. He pulled it out and stared at it. "A flash drive?" he mumbled, a look of confusion on his face.

He thought back to Fujiko brushing against him hours earlier and realized she had to have put it there. A new hope instilled in him, he grabbed his keys and hurried as he unlocked the door and opened it. And then he froze.

His place had been ripped apart. Everything he owned was scattered on the floor. Fragile items were broken and furniture was cracked. Papers and books littered the floor.

"Inspector," Haijura said in a pant as he ran up the stairs. "I'm glad I found you. I just wanted-" He stopped as he stood behind Zenigata and stared at the mess. "What happened here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Zenigata growled, his muscles tense as the anger boiled inside of him.

Haijura saw the man wasn't in the mood for questions, so he got to the point of why he was there. "I just wanted to let you know that Captain Sato has been found."

"Alive?"

"Yes. He's on his way to the station now."

Zenigata looked at Haijura and nodded. He closed and locked his door and followed the man down the stairs the best he could manage. He'd deal with the mess, and the drive, once he found out some answers from the captain.


	16. Chapter 16

Okay, so... I have no idea. It's like I skipped four chapters and then wrote this one. I had to do the thing that annoys me in stuff and explain everything, even though in a way (as I have stated in past Lupin special reviews) I do appreciate writers explaining things, as it keeps me from thinking too hard on it. Except when it comes to Jigen, as he states the obvious every effing time. He's like the character for the blind viewers. "Wow, Lupin, where did you get that four foot by three foot painting of a woman in a long yellow dress sitting in a field of white and pink flowers done by the famous Irish Swede Johann Fitzsimmons?" And as he asks that the viewers are staring at the painting. Gosh, Jigen, thanks for pointing out what I'm staring at. Such a swell fellow, you are. Now, run off and be insignificant. But, anyway... I was just following my notes and after completing the chapter, it all seems weird and confusing. I didn't plan this story very well, haha. Just pretend it all makes perfect sense. Jigen is laying there in a coma and thinking "God, I could have told this story better..." xD

* * *

><p>Sixteen<p>

Captain Sato sat in an interview room and stared down at the table. His lip was busted and a bandage was on his left cheek, but he was otherwise in good health.

"I stopped to get gas on my way to the station and they jumped me from behind," he told one of the detectives.

"And did you see any of them?"

"No. They put a bag over my head and shoved me into their car. They sounded as if they had masks or something on. They said... they said they had my son and that they beat my wife's head in." His jaw tightened and his hands clenched into fists. "The sons of bitches said my son arrested one of their guys and that they just wanted me to know that they would take good care of him. And then they tossed me out of the car and sped off."

The detective nodded as he wrote everything down.

"Do you know where my son is?" the Captain asked.

"I'm sorry, sir. We currently have no leads in the case."

Captain Sato looked down in sadness.

...

"Do you believe him?" Zenigata wondered. He stood behind Haijura as the two stared at a computer screen, everything from the drive being pulled up.

"We have three eye witnesses and they are sending the security footage over. Seems pretty believable to me."

Zenigata said nothing as he glared at the screen.

"Detective Haijura."

Haijura and Zenigata turned and stared at Captain Sato as he entered the room.

"Sir?" Haijura said as he stood.

"They said you had something for me. About my son."

Haijura looked at him in confusion and shook his head slowly. "There's nothing to tell you about, sir."

"Oh, well, I'm sorry for bothering you. Have you had any luck finding your daughter, Zenigata?"

Zenigata shot Haijura a glare. "Nothing yet, sir."

"Well, when you two are done I need to see you in my office."

The two were silent, watching as Sato left.

"Whatever," Haijura sighed. "Let's keep looking through these files."

...

"There is nothing in this stuff," Lupin said in annoyance as he motioned towards the screen of his laptop.

"So, I went to all that trouble of finding it?" Fujiko huffed. "There has to be something in there."

"I've looked three times. I'm telling you nothing is-"

Lupin stopped as his phone rang. Fujiko walked away as Lupin answered it.

"Hello," he said, the incoming call from an unknown number.

"You have to help me," came the whispered response.

"Who is this?"

"Officer Sato."

"How'd you get this number?"

"That isn't important right now," Officer Sato whispered. "You have to help me."

"Where are you?"

"I don't know. I'm behind an apartment building. These guys are after me. I escaped and- Oh god, they're coming."

"Okay, just calm down and tell me what's going on."

"It's my dad. I think he's-"

"Hey, I found him," a males voice yelled in the distance.

"They're coming! I- I gotta-"

Lupin stared at the phone as the call was disconnected.

"Who was that?" Fujiko wondered.

"Officer Sato. He said he escaped and that people were after him. And then something about his dad."

"Well, according to the news his dad is back at the station," Fujiko said.

"Yeah." Lupin stared off in thought. "I need to call Zenigata." He stood and dialed a number as he walked away.

...

"Well, whatever your friends wanted you to see, maybe you should have them point it out to you," Haijura said as he and Zenigata walked towards their Captain's office.

Zenigata was annoyed and said nothing. Every file on the drive scoured and nothing. His annoyance was broken by his ringing phone. "Yeah," he answered. "He what?" Zenigata stopped walking as listened.

Haijura stopped and stared at him.

"Where is he?" Zenigata stared down and glared at the floor. "And he said nothing else?" He paused and looked at Haijura. "Yeah, I'll be right there."

"What is it?" Haijura wondered.

"Officer Sato called Lupin. They're gonna try to trace the call, so I need to go."

"Shouldn't the Captain know?"

"Not yet," Zenigata said. "Not until we have some answers."

Haijura nodded. "I'll tell him you were called away, then."

Zenigata nodded and left.

Haijura continued to the office and entered it.

Captain Sato looked up. "Detective. Where's Zenigata?"

"He got a call and needed to leave."

"I see. Well, we just got a tip, so we need to go. I'll fill you in on the ride there."

Haijura nodded and followed Captain Sato out.

...

"I thought you'd be at the hospital," Zenigata said as he entered the apartment.

"Goemon is there right now. Said he wanted to be alone," Lupin said with a shrug.

"Did he call again?"

"No. I doubt he will."

"You think he's dead?"

Lupin shrugged. "These guys aren't messing around. We already know what they're capable of."

Zenigata nodded.

"Hey, did you find anything on that drive?" Lupin wondered.

"Nothing. You?"

"Nope. Just a bunch of old reports and pictures."

"Yeah," Zenigata sighed.

They looked at Lupin's phone on the coffee table as it began to ring.

"Hello," Lupin answered.

"I need you to pick me up," came another whispered voice.

"Officer Sato?" Lupin said.

"Yeah. I'm at 16573 Sakura. Come quickly."

"Yeah, I-" Lupin lowered the phone, the call once again disconnected. "We need to go. I'll call Goemon on the way so he can meet us there."

The three ran from the apartment.

...

Captain Sato pulled the car into a large empty lot.

Detective Haijura stepped out of the car and looked around. "They said they'd meet us here? Must be late. Are you sure that-" Haijura stopped as he turned towards the Captain, who was holding a gun and aiming it at him. "What... what's going on?"

"Maybe I should ask you the same thing, Detective Haijura. Or should I say Hotaka Nakamura," Captain Sato said with a smirk.

Haijura looked shocked at this, but said nothing.

"It took me a while to sniff you out, but I did. I was always good at that." Sato motioned with his gun for Haijura to step away from the car.

Haijura did, taking short slow steps.

"I'm actually surprised you didn't blow your cover, figuring I put your little friend into a coma," Sato laughed.

Haijura laughed. "Jigen isn't my friend. Just a guy who owed me a favor."

"Do you think I care?" Sato growled. "Tell me where the girl is."

Haijura laughed at this. "I can't tell you that, as I have no idea where she is. And the only person who does is laying in a hospital and will probably never wake up."

Sato clenched his jaw in anger.

"Looks like you just fucked yourself, Captain," Haijura smirked. "Although, since we're being so formal and everything, I guess should I call you Heng Xu, son of Huan."

Sato gripped the gun tighter.

"Because I know that the real Captain Sato is dead," Haijura said, the smirk still present. "And I know that you killed him and then assumed his identity after faking your death with his burnt up body. Yeah, it was pretty simple back in those days, without the DNA testing we have today."

"Where is she?" Sato growled.

"It also helped that you two were good friends, despite the fact that you were leading the Japanese branch of the Forty Sevens and that, at the time, Officer Sato was a dedicated member of the Tokyo Police force. That was clever, though, to cause that car crash and break your right hand, which forced you into using your true writing hand. Also must have been hard to smash your face in like you did to cover up the scars from the plastic surgery. But, I guess anything to cover up the truth, right?"

Sato tried to keep his glare, but a small facial twitch showed his shock at what he had been told.

Haijura laughed. "My organization knows things. Maybe we could put all of this behind us and work together."

Sato gave Haijura a suspicious glare.

...

Meanwhile, Lupin sped towards the address he was given, he, Fujiko, and Zenigata all hoping that they got there in time to save the young man. Perhaps then they'd get some answers to what was going on.


	17. Chapter 17

A short chapter just to fill in the blanks before the final one. Hopefully as a whole this story makes sense. I know it has gaps and seems to just throw things at the reader that were never talked about or even hinted at, but hopefully it's enjoyable.

* * *

><p>Seventeen<p>

"Well, we're here," Lupin said as he pulled up to the building he was told to go to.

"Do you see him?" Zenigata asked as he looked around.

"Well, I doubt he'd be out in the open." Lupin opened the door and stepped out of the car. He grabbed his gun and held it next to him as he crept closer to the building.

Fujiko followed, her gun held firmly as she glanced at the surrounding areas.

Zenigata reluctantly followed. He knew this may help him locate his daughter, but wasn't sure how. As far as he knew this was just a big waste of time.

"Officer Sato," Lupin said in a hushed yell. "You here?"

He pressed against the side of the building and took a deep breath before spinning around the corner, his gun pointed in front of him.

He was disappointed, in a way, that there was nothing there and continued looking around.

"Uh, Lupin?"

Lupin turned around and looked at Fujiko, who was standing near the building and looking down at the ground. "What is it?" he wondered as he walked towards her.

"I think I found Officer Sato," she said.

"Shit," Zenigata sighed as he stared down at the burnt remains of a body.

Lupin glared down at the corpse. "These guys..."

"Yeah?" came a man's voice from behind. "What about us?"

The three spun towards the voice and glared as a man and four others walked towards them.

"You did this?" Zenigata growled.

The one man just laughed.

"Hey, drop your weapons," another man yelled as he pulled up his rifle and pointed it at the three.

"And what will we get if we do?" Lupin asked with a smirk.

"Tch, screw this, man," the man said. "Just kill 'em."

Lupin's smirk faded as the three men opened fire.

From above fell Goemon, landing and blocking the bullets before rushing the four men and dispensing of them. "Let's go," he said as he started towards the car.

Zenigata followed and Fujiko followed him. She then turned to say something to Lupin when she noticed him laying on the ground. "Lupin," she yelled, stopping and rushing back to him.

Goemon and Zenigata stopped and ran back, the two men staring down at a bleeding Lupin.

"I... I'm f-fine," Lupin said through pained breaths, his hands at his left side and pressing down the wound. He tried to sit up when he yelled out in pain and fell back to the ground.

"Help me get him to the car," Zenigata said to Goemon. "Fujiko, you drive."

Fujiko nodded and ran back to the car, starting it and pulling closer to the building as Goemon and Zenigata carried Lupin away from it.

They reached the car and got him into the back seat. Goemon then jumped into the front as Zenigata stayed in the back, taking off his jacket and pressing the thick fabric onto the bullet wound.

"Augh," Lupin blurted out, tears rolling down the sides of his face as he shut his eyes tightly. "You... you should... have left me."

"Shut up," Zenigata ordered. He looked up and out the windshield. "Drive faster," he said to Fujiko.

Fujiko nodded and pressed down on the gas pedal, the car speeding through red lights and stop signs as it made its way to the hospital.

...

Haijura coughed as he was punched once again in the stomach. He was then struck by a hard left to the face, his body falling back to the ground.

"Work together," Sato scoffed as he stared down at the bloody faced man. "Do you take me as that kind of guy? One who would so easily fuck everything my father worked for just to team up with you and your shitty group?" He reared his left leg back and rammed his foot into Haijura's stomach.

Haijura let out a grunt of pain and curled tighter into a ball.

Sato smirked and knelt down next to the man. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a syringe, removing the cap from the needle and holding it up.

Haijura stared at the needle, then at Sato with begging eyes.

Sato laughed. "You know what this is, don't you? Well, I guess I don't have to tell you that you won't feel too good once it's inside you." He jabbed the needle into Haijura's arm and injected the clear liquid into it.

Haijura screamed as his body convulsed.

"You've got about one minute to tell me where that bitch is," Sato said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out another syringe. "And then you'll get this."

"P-please," Haijura begged as immense pain shot through his entire body. "G...give... m...m-me..."

"Not until you tell me."

Haijura let out another scream. His lips quivered as his mouth tried to form words.

"Thirty seconds," Sato said. "Unless you really want to die, which we both know you don't."

"D-Daiko... D-d-d-daiko c-cen-center," he sputtered. "Bl-block F!"

Sato smirked and stood. "Thank you Hotaka. You've been a great help." He tossed the syringe on the ground and walked back to the car.

Haijura stared at the syringe and moved his hand out, grasping for it, his fingers barely able to reach it, but unable to grasp the object. He let out a moan, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as his body went limp.

...

"I... I guess this is it," Lupin said with a smile on his face.

"Shut up," Zenigata yelled at him for the fifteenth time that trip.

"No," Lupin joked, trying to laugh but finding it too painful.

"Lupin, shut up," Fujiko said demandingly.

Lupin glanced in her direction and smiled before closing his eyes. "This isn't... I've done this before. I'll be fine, just like last..." He opened his eyes quickly and stared off. "Prostitution ring," he whispered.

"What?" Zenigata said as he leaned in closer.

"I under... understand now..."

"Understand what?"

"I know," he said, smirking at a confused Zenigata.

"Know what?" Zenigata barked, having no patience for these games.

"Jigen and I... cased an exhibit years... years ago." He tried to sit up, but moaned in pain and fell back to the seat.

"Just stay still," Zenigata said as he held a hand to Lupin's chest to keep him from moving. "And whats this have to do with anything?"

"A gold statue," Lupin said before letting out a low sigh and closing his eyes.

"Shit," Zenigata said, smacking Lupin's face. "Stay with me."

"We're about two minutes away," Fujiko said as she swerved around another car.

"Three women holding... hands," Lupin continued, his voice getting weaker by the second. "Prosti... pros..."

"Lupin," Zenigata yelled as the thief's body became limp. "Lupin!"

"Prostitution ring," Fujiko said in a hushed voice as she realized its meaning. "Oh my god."

Zenigata checked Lupin for a pulse and was happy to find one. He looked up at Fujiko. "What was he talking about."

"There was a gold statue of three women in a circle holding hands. I had wanted it and Jigen called it a prostitution ring and said it was perfect for me. He just said it that once, so I blew it off and forgot about it. But now it makes sense."

"What makes sense?" an annoyed Zenigata said.

"I know where your daughter is," she said as she slammed on the brakes in front of the hospital.

Zenigata stared at her in shock.


	18. Chapter 18

This story pretty much strayed from the description as I wrote it. Also, I think Zenigata has his arm (can't remember which one now) in a sling, but that just disappeared. He's a fast healer. Or a manly man and can take the pain. Whatever. I think I covered everything in this story, as in wrapping it up. I hate when stuff is left just hanging. Kind of like the end of this. xD Hopefully the readers will enjoy this last chapter, though. :D Thank you for reading it.

* * *

><p>Eighteen<p>

Lupin was unloaded from the car and placed on a stretcher. Fujiko stayed with him as the nurses wheeled him inside.

Zenigata watched this from beside the car. When he could no longer see the two he opened the driver side door and got in. "So, what happened?" He sped off and glanced over at Goemon, who sat in the passenger seat.

Goemon stared off in front of him. "I wasn't there."

"Huh?" Zenigata gave him a quick confused glance before concentrating back on the road. "I thought Lupin always called you in on those kinds of jobs."

"He thought he could handle it. And it almost got both of them killed."

Zenigata only nodded, his mind now concentrating on his daughter and if she was really there or if this was another trap. He couldn't risk being suspicious, though, if he wanted to see his daughter alive and safe.

"Turn here," Goemon said as they closed in on the location. "This will take you to the back of the main building."

"Right," Zenigata said as he veered down the narrow access road.

"The exhibit was in Block F," Goemon said. "It's one of the last warehouses."

Zenigata nodded and sped down the road. He followed the signs and maneuvered down various paths until he saw the building in the distance.

"I'll go in first," Goemon said. "You can cover the back."

"Sure," Zenigata said. He drove for another hundred yards before slamming on the brakes and jumping from the car.

Goemon got out and ran towards the building. He cut the handle from the door and pushed it open.

Zenigata pressed his back against the building and looked around. He saw and heard nothing, so continued inside and followed Goemon.

"The office," Goemon said, glancing across the large, dimly lit, empty space and towards the small office situated on the second floor.

Zenigata nodded and the two walked slowly towards the stairs, Zenigata facing the entrance and making sure nobody was inside waiting to ambush them.

They made it to the stairs and quickened their pace, running up them. With one swipe of his sword, Goemon opened the door, the two standing and staring inside.

"Toshiko," Zenigata said happily, seeing the girl sitting on the floor of the office with her legs pulled up to her chest and her face resting on her arms, which were folded over her knees.

The girl quickly lifted her head. "Dad? Dad!"

Goemon watched as the girl jumped to her feet and ran towards her father, the two embracing and holding each other tightly.

"I was so worried about you," Zenigata said through his tears.

Toshiko said nothing as she cried into her fathers jacket.

"We need to leave," Goemon said.

Zenigata looked at him and nodded. "Come on," he said to his daughter, leading her out of the room as his right arm was wrapped around her.

They walked down the stairs and started across the large floor of the warehouse.

"I'm surprised to see you still alive, Inspector," came a voice from the darkness.

The three stopped in the middle of the room, Zenigata shielding his daughter while Goemon unsheathed his sword and looked around him.

Seven men with machine guns ran into the room and surrounded the three. The eighth man, one who Zenigata knew as his Captain, stepped forward into the light.

"Captain Sato," Zenigata said in shock. "What is all this?"

Sato smirked. "This is what I call taking care of loose ends. I've already taken care of one. Now I just have seven to go. And you three just made this that much easier."

Zenigata's eyes widened. "You... What'd you do to Haijura?" he asked demandingly.

Sato laughed. "Does it matter? He wasn't who you thought he was, either. He was in on this whole thing from the beginning. He was the one who had your daughter kidnapped, so you should be happy that I disposed of him for you."

"He took her to keep her away from you," Zenigata yelled.

Sato laughed and pulled out a gun. "Too bad he was weak and gave up her location, isn't it?" He narrowed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

At the same time the other men began to fire, Goemon blocking the bullets from hitting he and Toshiko as the bullet from Sato's gun pierced Zenigata's chest.

"No," Toshiko yelled. "Dad!"

Zenigata stumbled back from the hit, then turned around and grabbed his daughter, forcing her to the ground and getting on top of her, shielding her from the bullets.

Goemon let out a yell and ran forward, slicing bullets on his way to the men firing them. Once he reached the men he sliced their guns apart before killing them.

The seven gunmen fallen, he turned to see if Zenigata and Toshiko were all right. It was then he froze, Sato standing next to the two with his gun aimed at Zenigata's head.

"You're talented," Sato laughed. "I doubt you're talented enough to reach me in time before I pull the trigger."

Goemon tensed and glared at the man.

"Could you stop the bullet?" Sato said with a smirk. "Could you stop a second bullet aimed at the girls head?"

"Dad?" Toshiko whispered as tears ran down his face.

"It's okay," Zenigata said weakly. "It's gonna be okay."

"I'm sorry, dad," Toshiko cried.

"No," Goemon yelled as he started running towards Sato.

Sato laughed, his finger pulling back on the trigger.

Goemon stopped when the gunshot echoed through the building. He watched with an intense stare as Sato's smirk faded and his body fell limp to the floor. Goemon then looked from the body to the man standing in the doorway.

Zenigata opened his eyes, realizing he was still alive. "You okay?" he asked his daughter.

She nodded.

Zenigata glanced up as the man started walking towards them. "O-Officer Sato?" he said in shock. "But, you..."

Officer Sato, in just a t-shirt, boxers and socks, stopped at the body of the man he knew as his father and stared down at it. He turned back towards the door as sirens rang in the distance.

...

It was three days later, Zenigata laying in a hospital bed as he recovered from the bullet wound to his chest, his only other injuries being weakness from blood loss and two broken ribs.

"You should be lucky he was a bad shot," Inspector Melon, who had been released from the hospital the day before, said as she stood at his bedside.

Toshiko, who had been at her father's side since he arrived at the room, nodded slowly as she stared at her father.

Zenigata stared off seriously. "How is everyone else?"

"Lupin is recovering. Fujiko and Goemon came out unharmed. And Jigen is still in a coma."

"And Haijura?"

"They recovered his body two days ago," Melon said as she stared down sadly. "He was injected with a mixture of drugs. They found what would have saved him near his hand. Sato's, or rather, Heng's sadistic sense of humor, I guess."

"How's the kid taking all of this?"

"Officer Sato is shaken up, but he's taken the news rather well. I think he had his suspicions that the man was not his father."

"So, what happened?" Zenigata wondered. "I thought he was dead."

"He said he gave his clothes to a homeless man, who then put them on. The police haven't told him that the man was hunted down and burnt to death because of it. They figure he doesn't need to know the details."

Zenigata nodded. "He's been through enough already."

Melon nodded in agreement and the room was silent.

"I've made up my mind," Zenigata said after a couple of minutes. He glanced from Melon to his daughter and then back to Melon. "I'm turning in my resignation."

"Dad," Toshiko said in shock.

"Are you sure this is really what you want?" Melon wondered.

Zenigata nodded. "It is. I guess being that close to death made me finally realize what's important to me." He looked at his daughter and smiled. "It isn't police work, or Lupin, or my job. It's you, my daughter, who I came so close to losing."

"Dad..." Toshiko smiled as she started to tear up. She bent down and hugged him.

Zenigata smiled and hugged her back.

...

Three days later Zenigata was released, able to walk out on his own. His daughter was unsure of how retirement for him would work out, as she was sure he'd get bored fast and regret the whole thing.

Zenigata felt the same way, but knew he couldn't be a part of his daughters life and be running around the world after an obnoxious thief. Priorities for him had changed and he'd make sure his stubborn side reminded him of that.

"You have everything?" Toshiko asked as she stood at the door of the hospital room.

Zenigata finished with his tie and grabbed his wallet and watch from the table. "Yeah. Before we leave, I need to talk to someone first."

Toshiko nodded. "I'll pull the car out front and wait for you," she said with a smile before leaving the room.

Zenigata took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He wasn't sure how Lupin would take the news. "Knowing him, he'll call bullshit on the whole thing," he muttered as he walked out the room.

Lupin sat next to Jigen's bed, his eyes staring down at the paper in his lap as he read the article loudly. "...and three more suspects from the old gang have been rounded up and charged. Police are hoping that this incident will close the book for good on the Forty Sevens case." He stared at the article and then up at Jigen. "So, in the end, everything worked out. Well, except for Haijura or whatever his name was. And the homeless guy. And you..."

"Lupin."

Lupin looked up towards the door and stared at Zenigata as he walked in.

"How is he doing?" Zenigata asked as he stared down at Jigen.

Lupin shrugged. "Doctors say he isn't brain dead. So, that's something, I guess," he muttered as he stared downwards.

Zenigata said nothing and turned his gaze to Lupin. "I have something to tell you."

"You're retiring, I know," Lupin said as he stared off. He looked up as Zenigata stared with a surprised look. "I'm not stupid. I mean, why would you want to stay after all of this? And knowing that you were following orders from a gang leader, that can't make things any easier."

Zenigata said nothing.

Lupin smiled and shrugged. "You don't need to worry about me, though. Enjoy yourself. Try not to get too bored," he said with a grin.

"Thanks," Zenigata said. "I think."

"I'll still be around to keep things interesting. I'll just think of new ways to annoy you."

Zenigata chuckled and shook his head. "I'll look forward to that."

"Well, I'm gonna stick around here until this idiot decides to wake up." He looked at Jigen and grinned.

Zenigata nodded. He could tell the emotions Lupin was trying to express weren't real, only there to hide how he really felt.

"So," Lupin continued, "whoever is taking over my case will be very bored for a while."

"Just do me a favor," Zenigata said as he gave Lupin a serious look. "Don't go easy on the new guy."

Lupin grinned and winked. "I'll make sure I'm more annoying with him than I ever was with you."

Zenigata smiled. Retirement wasn't sounding so bad after all. "See you around, Lupin." Zenigata turned and started out of the room.

"Sure thing, Pops," Lupin said as he watched the man leave. "Sure thing," he said in a low voice, his expression more serious as he stared down at Jigen.

THE END


End file.
